原创 Engineering education: What are we lacking?

When I went to college, a very long time ago, I felt the University of Maryland had a great engineering program. But it did suffer from an over-emphasis on theory. We were not allowed to solder, as the school feared we’d burn ourselves!

The school offered too little guidance. I got caught up in too many math classes, finding the subject interesting. But most of those classes, like abstract algebra, were a waste of time. Calculus was worth learning as it is the basis for most of science. I’m glad to have learned it, though it’s surprising how infrequently I have used it in my career. When my son told me he needed help in his high school calculus class I had to re-study the subject to stay a step or two ahead of him. It was humbling to find my skills so degraded.

Circuit design classes were awful. There were only two: one on circuits, and another on transistor theory. Both were highly theoretical, and neither covered much about actual circuits. There was a lot of difficult math, like impulse response, which hasn’t been useful at all over the last 40 years. There wasn’t a peep about Darlington pairs, op amps, push-pull, classes of amplifiers, hetrodyning, and all of the rest that has been so important over the decades.

Looking over syllabuses today it appears EE requirements are more realistic, though it’s hard to know how practical a class is by the descriptions. But more electronics appears to be taught than in the early 70s. The University of Maryland still requires two electromagnetics courses, and I’ll bet those are just as incomprehensible as of yore. That material is more important than ever in this world of high-speed communications links, but it should be more accessible to students who will go on to design systems, not practice arcane mathematics. Today only one chemistry class is required, which is a good thing. I thought the second class we needed, organic chemistry, was mere memorization.

Today the University of Maryland requires one English class, on technical writing. Back in my day a composition course was mandated, though one could test out of it. We also had to take a literature class.

Engineering curricula are packed with too many classes in too short a period of time. Few manage to get out in four years, and that fifth, at an astronomical cost per year, can be financially devastating. But I sure wish we could wave a magic wand to squeeze in some much-needed additional classes.

Number one on my wish list: Written and spoken communications. I think students need a number of classes on the subject. They simply must learn to write, and to write well. This is the communications age, yet too many techies have no communications skills.