| authors |
Rasdorf, William J. and Storaasli, Olaf O. |
| year |
1987 |
| title |
Educational Fundamentals of Computer-Aided Engineering |
| source |
International Journal of Applied Engineering Education. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1987. vol. 3: pp. 247-254 |
| summary |
The role of computer science is increasing in nearly every engineering discipline. One of the dilemmas in engineering education today is how future engineers can best assimilate the advanced, yet fundamental, knowledge of computer science appropriate for their professional engineering career. This paper suggests that the role of the academic community must be to prepare engineering students to use computer methods and applications as a part of their fundamental engineering education. It is the responsibility of colleges and universities to incorporate contemporary computing fundamentals into their academic curriculum to improve the professional qualifications of their engineering graduates. This paper discusses current educational practices and their shortcomings as well as new options to reinforce and enhance the role of computing in engineering. The key ingredients, operating system fundamentals, data structures, program control and organization, algorithms, and computer architectures (relative to concurrent processing) are discussed. The 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 computational content of many others so that the student comes to treat the computer as a fundamental component of his work. Indeed this is a major undertaking but the benefits of advanced computer knowledge by new engineering graduates promises to provide significant future innovations in the engineering profession. The proper tradeoff between engineering fundamentals and computer science is changing with many of the concepts of engineering now being packaged in algorithms or on computer chips. The impact of advances in computer technology on engineering education are therefore discussed. Several of the benefits of enhanced computational expertise by engineers are enumerated and case studies of recent NASA initiatives whose success required that engineers possess an in-depth knowledge of computer science are presented |
| keywords |
CAE, civil engineering, education |
| series |
CADline |
| references |
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| last changed |
2003/06/02 10:24 |
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