A renaissance in engineering, lead by 1,300 first year students
“To help people through technology.”
“I decided to go into engineering because I believe engineers are here to spread education globally. I also believe engineers are here to improve the standard of living for all of the globe’s citizens. Finally, to create a situation where engineers can work together in a network around the world. I hope that I can do that at the end of my four years.”
These are the answers I got when I posed the question “what is engineering?” to 1,300 first-year engineering students a few weeks back during their first lecture on their first day. Those answers, and many of the remaining 1,298 blew me away. But why was I so surprised?
First, some context: To say it was intimidating to follow a Nobel Prize winner (John Polanyi) and Canada’s most recognized international statesman (Stephen Lewis) to give UofT Engineering’s third annual opening guest lecture is an understatement. But that’s where I found myself, a few weeks ago, on the stage of UofT’s Convocation Hall in front of 1,300 bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first year engineering students (though I was heartened by the fact that, considering that it was the first lecture of their University career, my audience was likely as anxious as I was).
In true EWB fashion, the lecture I gave was a group effort. Ideas came from across the organization (http://my.ewb.ca/home/ShowPost/63767), and I ultimately sat down with students at our amazing UofT Chapter for the finishing touches.
The theme and core concept of the lecture was a simple imperative: That each one of them, as a first-year engineering student, are responsible for answering the question “What is engineering?”
So why was I so surprised by the inspiring, visionary answers? Well, because when you look at the course content that awaits them in their degrees, different answers emerge. At UofT, definitely one of the more progressive and leading engineering schools in the country, of 500 or so engineering courses offered, roughly 10 are set aside to deal explicitly with the role of engineers in society or in the environment or in policy. That’s 2%!
And so a massive disconnect awaits these students.
That’s why I challenged them to ask the question − what is engineering? − and why I begged them to spend the next 5 years of their engineering degrees pushing for the answers that they expect.
Now we have 1,300 answers to that question, on cue cards (please get in touch if you have a passion for data entry!). Let’s ask it again every year to each class of first year engineering students at UofT. Let’s ask it every year to every first year engineering student across Canada. And then let’s ask it as they receive their iron rings. My guess is that the answers today would change substantially from day 1 to day 1,800. My hope for the future is that they are quite the same.
Mina Shahid, the Co-President of the UofT Chapter of EWB, recently asked all of the UofT Engineering Faculty: “Is U of T ready to help make these visions a reality?”
From listening to this first-year class during their first lecture on their first day of engineering, I don’t think it matters if UofT is ready because they’re about to be hit with a vision of the next generation of engineers, a vision that includes engineers serving a global society. And this vision is coming whether faculty at any engineering school in Canada like it or not … and that’s a beautiful thing!