The Curriculumand the Educationof Engineers

The purpose ofeducation oftheelectrical engineer is explored, especially asitrelates tothedivision ofresponsibility be- tweentheteaching machine andthefaculty. Arguments arepre- sented formaking thecurriculum moreflexible andbetter suited to individual students, especially gifted students. TVHROUGHOUTtheagestheconcept "education" hasundergone manychanges. InthedaysofPlato somemenacquired "true education" bytraveling tovarious countries andlistening tolectures bythe great philosophers oftheera. Others preferred toasso- ciate themselves withaparticular school ofthought and "grew" byclose association withonegreat man.The concept ofa"university" moreorless blends these two aspects orconcepts of"education." Ontheonehand, we attempt toexpose thestudent toanumberofdifferent professors and,ontheother hand,wemakehimwork veryclosely withoneprofessor ofhischoice intherole ofathesis adviser. Today, there aremanynewconcepts that areentering thefield ofeducation: radio, television, closed-circuit television, classes broadcast fromanair- plane, movies, teaching machines, etc. Itseemsanap- propriate timetoattempta (necessarily imprecise) breakdown oftheconcept "education" toseewhether different pieces ofitcanbeassigned tothedifferent media. Since this paperisauthored byanelectrical engineer, itisinevitable thattheanalysis herepresented should be moredirectly applicable totheeducation oftheelectri- calengineer thantotheothers. Broadly speaking, theeducation ofanengineer can bedivided intothree majorcategories. First andfore- most,heisan"educated man."Bythis wemeanthat hepossesses acertain setofundefinable qualities: "cul- ture," "theability tothinkforhimself, communicate withothers, andlive inacommunity." Secondly, heis an"engineer" inthetraditional sense. Namely, hecan solve acertain setofproblems forwhichthemethod of solution (the algorithm) isknown:design bridges, radio receivers, orTV sets asthecasemaybe.Lastbutnot least, hehastheability to"stay alive" intheprofession, bykeeping upwiththetechnology, assimilating totally newconcepts henevermetasastudent, andevencon- tributing newconcepts totheprofession. Ofthesemajordivisions, onlythesecondiseven roughly definable. Iamusing theword"definable" ap-