The Role of Computing in Engineering Education

Pergamon Press, 1985. --- Also Published in: Proceedings of the Symposium on Advances and Trends in Structures and Dynamics, Pergamon Press, George Washington University and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Washington, D.C. pp. 11-15, Oct.1984. The rapid advances occurring in interactive micro-computing and computer science have provided the engineer with a powerful means of processing, storing, retrieving, and displaying data. The effective use of computer technology in engineering processes and applications is recognized by many as the key to increased individual, company, and national productivity. The implications of this observation for the academic community are clear: we must prepare our students to use computer methods and applications as part of their fundamental education. The proper tradeoff between engineering fundamentals and computer science principles and practices is changing with many of the concepts of engineering now being packaged in algorithms or on computer chips. The components of an education should include operating system fundamentals, data structures, program control and organization, algorithms, and computer architectures. It is critically important for engineering students to receive an education that teaches them these fundamentals. This paper suggests that to convey the essentials of computer science to future engineers requires, in part, the addition of computer courses to the engineering curriculum. It also requires a strengthening of the computing content of many other courses so that students come to treat the computer as a fundamental component of their work. This is a major undertaking, but new engineers graduating with advanced computing knowledge will provide potentially significant future innovations in the engineering professio