Engineering Societies and Undergraduate Engineering Education

Introduction

Engineering professional societies in the United States are engaged in a wide range of activities involving undergraduate education. However, these activities generally are not coordinated and have not been assessed in such a way that information about their procedures and outcomes can be shared. Nor have they been assessed to determine whether they are optimally configured to mesh with corresponding initiatives undertaken by industry and academia.

Engineering societies work largely independently on undergraduate education, leaving open the question of how much more effective their efforts could be if they worked more collaboratively—with each other as well as with academia and industry. To explore the potential for enhancing societies' role at the undergraduate level, the National Academy of Engineering held a workshop on the engagement of engineering societies in undergraduate engineering education. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.