SIGMA XI - NJIT CHAPTER

Engineering faculties throughout the land are in a frenzy of activity to generate the documentation that will demonstrate that their curricula are in compliance with the new ABET 2000 guidelines. These activities will no doubt be successful but will have little impact on the engineering curriculum in most schools. Genuine reform requires reexamination of the fundamental structure of the curriculum: both its content and the context in which it is presented. Not only is there too much content (i.e., subject matter), but much of it has little relevance to the job duties of practicing engineers. Moreover, the context in which the subject matter is presented does little to prepare engineering students for a lifelong productive career. This talk will address the reasons for the need of genuine curriculum reform and some of the steps that can be taken to implement them.

BIOGRAPHY

After a 27 year career in the avionics industry, Dr. Bernard Friedland joined the NJIT Department of Electrical and Computer Enginering as a Distinguished Professor. He is the (co-) author of four textbooks and over 100 technical papers in the field of control theory and applications. Dr. Friedland has had an interest in engineering education for a number of years. His 1982 talk (subsequently expanded by himself and Professor Peter Dorato into an article in Engineering Education) on making the doctorate the first engineering degree attracted considerable attention. Dr. Friedland was born and educated in New York City. He received his A.B., B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Columbia University.