INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGINEERING EDUCATION 1998

Progress Through Partnership: Strengthening Alliances

In these early years of a world consumer-based economy, the fast pace at which scientific discoveries are transformed into technologies, and the high rate at which these technologies diffuse into the global marketplace, has placed new and different demands upon an engineer's education. These demands call for a New Engineer who is educated to engineer for consumer demands, who continues to educate himself to remain competitive, and who learns to profit in the marketplace. These are the broad challenges which are reshaping the strategies of the government, university and industry partnerships in general, and engineering education institutions in particular.

New strategies to meet these challenges are evolving, for example, scientific literacy is a survival skill for workers in a post industrial technology-based economy. In the 80s and 90s a new cooperative strategy rooted in education has evolved to meet this challenge. The strategy is one of inter-university collaboration at the undergraduate level with strong cooperation and coordination of the K-12 segment.

As stated in the ICEE 97 agenda, the formidable task of meeting and resolving these challenges must be the shared endeavor of engineering educators on a world-wide basis. The onset of the global market strategies has not only opened a country's borders for commerce, but it also strengthens the fundamental notion of global interdependence. One country's successful development can potentially enhance another country's assets. The full realization of the social and economic benefits of globalization rests on the ability to combine strategies on an international scale which focus on industrial, scientific, and technological challenges with those strategies that address the challenges through the marketplace. As a first step in this evolving 21 Century endeavor, the theme of ICEE 98 is international partnerships for meeting the challenges to educate the New Engineer.

Topics include but are not limited to the following: innovations in curricular contents and structure; entry level course design; multi-disciplinary design integration; applications of new communication and information technologies in teaching and learning; multimedia teaching tools; distance learning;  quality methods in teaching; models for higher education in various countries; integrating laboratory instruction; current trends in engineering education; university-industry joint programs; practice-based engineering education; integration of basic sciences (chemistry, physics and mathematics) and engineering; present and changing status of engineering education; entry level engineering; increasing the participation of women and minorities in engineering; global engineering practice; design of cooperative networks for engineering education devolpment; engineering education and K-12 interaction.

e-mail information: fagundes@ctc.puc-rio.br