iFoundry aims to reinvent engineering education for the 21st Century
Thursday, September 4, 2008
In our complex society, today’s engineers must be capable of creating new products and services to compete in a globally competitive marketplace. At the same time they must respond effectively to difficult societal and environmental challenges. Ilesanmi Adesida, dean of the College of Engineering at Illinois, has announced a bold plan to forge a new breed of creative engineers for the 21st century by creating a new interdepartmental curriculum incubator, iFoundry: The Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education.
“The current engineering curriculum was established during the Cold War era and needs to be thoroughly reexamined and overhauled,” Adesida stated. “Engineering today is unusually fast-paced and requires an uncommon blend of knowledge and skill along technological, humanistic, and artistic dimensions.”
Despite the need for change, few engineering schools have yet to make the adjustments required to realign engineering education with the needs of an Internet age.
Charles Tucker, associate dean for undergraduate programs, suggested the need for an overhaul of the organizational processes of change.
“iFoundry will allow us to make meaningful changes, such as strengthening the creative capacity of our students, while preserving the technical excellence that has been the hallmark of Engineering at Illinois,” remarked Tucker. “iFoundry is a collaborative, interdepartmental curriculum incubator, where volunteer faculty and students from many departments will come together to plan, test, and execute the engineering curricula of the future.”
