Engineering to revamp curriculum

A reinvention of the Engineering School's undergradute curriculum is underway. The second of three committees studying the Engineering School's curriculum this year will study what the school should be teaching their students and then devise a plan to implement these ideas. The committee, which met for the first time last Friday to receive their charge from Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington, will first need to decide what will be important and necessary for students to know in the 1990's and beyond. The group of professors and one student will then have to determine the most important values of the curriculum, considering how to combine the teaching of technology with the teaching of such things as writing and speaking. These aspects of the curriculum will be considered for the school as a whole, rather than for each individual field, as the committee tries to redefine the "philosophical basis for undergraduate curriculum," said Civil Systems Professor John Lepore, the committee's chairperson. The committee will then consider how to go about implementing their findings. Farrington said he hopes committee members will put a lot of emphasis on the structure of the first-year curriculum, which he feels is the most important. He said he thinks that freshman year should be an interesting year because students form their general impression of the University. Currently, he said students take the exciting classes during junior or senior year. Lepore added that they will consider how to teach subjects such as math, physics and chemistry, either as entities unto themselves or as they apply to the field of engineering. The committee will also have to consider whether or not it wishes to remain an accredited program. While high schools and professional industries may be more responsive to accreditation, the guidelines for maintaining accreditation are very constrictive, Lepore said. Farrington expects to see a blueprint for the curriculum change within the year, expecting that it will take a few years to implement the changes. He challenged Lepore's committee to talk to alumni, students, industry leaders and educators at this and other universities to see what works and what does not. "We want to learn from the good and reject the bad," Farrington said. After Farrington's charge, the committee began a lively discussion of what they thought they were going to do in the upcoming months. Farrington said he believes that because of the enthusiasm he heard at that first meeting, this will be "a very effective group of people." Last month, Farrington charged a committee of Engineering professors to study how best to bring technology into the lives of all University students and how to "internationalize" the Engineering school. Farrington plans to charge a third committee later this month to study another aspect of the Engineering curriculum.

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