{"id":384,"date":"2019-08-20T20:21:43","date_gmt":"2019-08-21T01:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morsepower.net\/?p=384"},"modified":"2019-08-20T20:21:43","modified_gmt":"2019-08-21T01:21:43","slug":"engineering-a-better-engineering-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/?p=384","title":{"rendered":"Engineering a better engineering school"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shortly after graduating, I had a lot of thoughts on my educational experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Specifically, as I began to start working in an actual engineering job, I had thoughts about the ways I was prepared for the real world and the ways I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

I came in with useful tools, like knowing how to generate a truth table for a logic function or how to work in a small group.\u00c2\u00a0 I also came in with an encyclopedia of useless knowledge, like how to calculate the cross product of two matrices, determine the Thevenin Equivalent of a resistor circuit, and calculate a Fourier transform by hand.\u00c2\u00a0 It made me wonder how many people had to switch majors because they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t able to grasp those latter concepts. How many would-be engineers switched their career trajectories because they failed to master unhelpful skills?<\/p>\n

Engineering school should not just be boot camp for smart people.\u00c2\u00a0 The focus should and can be on teaching a trade, instead of layering theory on top of theory in an effort to induce a third of the student body to wash out.<\/p>\n

The question that nobody asked, yet I feel compelled to try to answer, is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153what would you do, Dean Emperor Keith, if you could design the course plan yourself?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

My awesome former classmate Kyle was able to find a course plan for BU Electrical Engineers in the class of 2008.\u00c2\u00a0 This was the year after mine, and I was in Computer Systems Engineering, so a bit of it was unfamiliar to me. But most of it was recognizable.\u00c2\u00a0 Also, it was bright pink; I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve taken mercy on you, dear reader, and rendered it in grey scale. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the starting point.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Seriously, it was bright pink.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I posit that we can make it better, mostly by removing a lot of content.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll try to justify each of my picks below, both in terms of why classes were cut, or they were not.\u00c2\u00a0 In some cases, I combined classes together.<\/p>\n

To make life easier, here’s the finished product, which I’ll also post down below.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Ignore the dependency lines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Non-Engineering Classes Kept or Merged<\/b><\/p>\n

English Composition<\/i> – Communication is a part of basic engineering competency.<\/p>\n

Calculus (Merged) <\/i>– I agonized over this a bit.\u00c2\u00a0 I think cramming Calc I and Calc II into a single semester might be aggressive, but if you simply focus on the essentials (basics rules of derivatives and integrals) you can create enough of a foundation for future calculus-based classes like Physics and Mechanics.<\/p>\n

Differential Equations<\/i> – Probably the most applicable topic to most engineering work in terms of higher level math courses.<\/p>\n

Chemistry<\/i> – This one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s on the bubble.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not directly applicable to most forms of engineering unless you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really looking to focus on material sciences.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Periodic Table is too important to skip.<\/p>\n

Physics (Merged) <\/i>– Cover mechanics (Physics I) and electromagnetics (Physics II) in one course.\u00c2\u00a0 There are future courses that go deeper into these topics, so keeping the material cursory.<\/p>\n

Waves and Modern Physics<\/i> – Way too important and interesting to skip.\u00c2\u00a0 I might be biased.<\/p>\n

Non-Engineering Classes Scrapped<\/b><\/p>\n

Multivariate Calculus <\/i>– The most interesting portions of this class, partial derivatives and multidimensional integrals, are better covered elsewhere and aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even that interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus I really hated this class. Again, I might be biased.<\/p>\n

Introduction to Linear Algebra <\/i>– I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why this class exists.<\/p>\n

Elementary Probability<\/i> – This topic is interesting but had very little direct applicability to working in the industry.<\/p>\n

All Non-technical Electives – <\/i>This might seem controversial but I have a very specific idea in mind here for what this program can accomplish, and liberal arts electives get in the way of it.\u00c2\u00a0 If you really are curious about Eastern Religions, read a book. Read lots of books! But don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make us spend our tuition money on it.<\/p>\n

Preamble: Theory vs. Practical<\/b><\/p>\n

Before I move on to changes to the core engineering courses, I wanted to address a fundamental question.\u00c2\u00a0 What amount of theory is necessary and sufficient? My gut wants to say \u00e2\u20ac\u0153almost zero, stop worrying and learn to love abstraction.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0 But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to try to be balanced here.<\/p>\n

Take Electric Circuit Theory as a case example.\u00c2\u00a0 The class is meant to introduce the fundamentals of circuit analysis and design.\u00c2\u00a0 It is incredibly important, but spending an entire semester studying only three passive circuit components (resistors, capacitors, and inductors) is a waste.\u00c2\u00a0 Spending most of that time doing hand-analysis of complicated circuits means you have less time to learn how to use the simulation tools that actual engineers rely on.\u00c2\u00a0 The goal with this, and all, courses should be to stay in theory for just <\/i>long enough to build a fundamental sense of the physical and mathematical mechanisms at play, and pivot as quickly as possible to the next level of abstraction and automation.<\/p>\n

ECT, as it is currently taught, makes this pivot far too late.\u00c2\u00a0 Making it earlier allows the course to be merged with Electronics, to introduce active components (diodes and transistors) into the mix.\u00c2\u00a0 Again, this can only be accomplished if the Electronics syllabus is stripped of the months spent doing pen-and-paper analyses of rectifiers and inverters.<\/p>\n

Engineering Classes Kept or Merged<\/b><\/p>\n

Engineering Computation <\/i>– This is intro programming for engineers.\u00c2\u00a0 Essential.<\/p>\n

Engineering Mechanics<\/i> – Deeper dive into the mechanics side of physics.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what allowed us to merge Physics I and II. Add more design projects, though.<\/p>\n

Intro Electromagnetics – <\/i>The same as above but for the electromagnetics portion of physics.\u00c2\u00a0 I did not take this class so I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t speak to its merits.<\/p>\n

Signals and Systems<\/i> – This class is beneficial because, at the end of the day, many fields of engineering can be abstractly thought of as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153systems\u00e2\u20ac\u009d to the point where Systems Engineering is a thing people can get a Masters in.<\/p>\n

Senior Design Project <\/i>-\u00c2\u00a0 A long-term capstone project is valuable and provides the closest approximation to what working in the industry actually looks like.\u00c2\u00a0 The name might need to change, for reasons to be made clear shortly.<\/p>\n

Electronics and Computer Electives <\/i>– I see these as the part where students begin to specialize in higher level topics of interest, some of which are graduate level classes, and many of which are project-focused. For example, during my time at BU the most relevant course to my actual career was a chip design project course, VLSI II.\u00c2\u00a0 At the conclusion of the semester, the professor told me that I was the first undergraduate to take it. I used to be proud of that, but now I just think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a shame.<\/p>\n

Engineering Classes Scrapped<\/b><\/p>\n

Engineering Seminar –<\/i> This was a fluff class.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t worth any credits anyways.<\/p>\n

Introduction to Engineering –<\/em> Same as above, this was a semester-long rotating tour of several electives and I’m not sure why it was necessary.<\/p>\n

Systems Elective – <\/em>As justified above, useful content should have already been covered in Signals and Systems<\/p>\n

Technical Electives – <\/em>There are already enough “technical” electives captured above.\u00c2\u00a0 This many is excessive.<\/p>\n

Engineering Classes Added<\/b><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t just fix the inadequacies present here by removal alone.\u00c2\u00a0 We also need to add some content.<\/p>\n

Almost half a dozen of these classes have a strong coding requirement inherent in them, but none of them spend any time teaching you how to use a decent text editor.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the intellectual equivalent of giving carpentry apprentices a year of training on the metallurgical makeup of nails but forgetting to teach them how to swing a fucking hammer.\u00c2\u00a0 What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more, you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be an electrical engineer in the 21st Century without having a firm grasp of build automation (\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Make,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for example) and version control systems, but this topic is left to TAs to explain to bewildered students just to allow them to get through their homework assignments.\u00c2\u00a0 So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve added a course I called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153How to program.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I went through my four years at BU without using a higher level interpreted scripting language like Perl or Python to perform simple functions.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the power tools of the tech industry and every graduate from an engineering program should have some experience with them. So I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve added a course called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Scripting languages.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So, after all that, I’ll visualize the changes again.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Look I’m not a GIMP expert, cut me some slack.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s condense.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Less is more.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even after adding two courses, look at what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got here.\u00c2\u00a0 You can fit this program into two and a half years.<\/p>\n

This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough credits, of course, to net you a Bachelor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Degree.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to live in a world where this is no longer important, that even electrical and electronics engineering education can be treated as a trade program.\u00c2\u00a0 A more compact and focused program could be utilized for either a lower-cost secondary education or a quick worker retraining program, both of which are desperately needed right now.<\/p>\n

This is, of course, all just fun and games.\u00c2\u00a0 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not actual Dean Emperor Keith. I have no authority to make any of this a reality, and nobody who does really pays much mind to what I think.\u00c2\u00a0 But as far as thought experiments go, this was a fun ride. Thanks for taking it with me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shortly after graduating, I had a lot of thoughts on my educational experience.\u00c2\u00a0 Specifically, as I began to start working in an actual engineering job, I had thoughts about the ways I was prepared for the real world and the ways I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. I came in with useful tools, like knowing how to generate a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":390,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morsepower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}