Force Multipliers
In 2012, Prism reported on a controversial drive led by civil engineers to require a master’s as the first professional degree for engineers. While that campaign struggles to gain momentum, a new question looms before engineering educators: Should they support an Advanced Placement test for engineering, joining physics, chemistry, calculus, computer science and 30 other AP subjects that are widely considered the high school gold standard? As with the master’s proposal, an AP would likely force some rethinking of college curricula. It could also accelerate a trend that Mary Lord describes in our cover story, of universities and high schools working together to prepare more teens for engineering. The University of Arizona, for example, partners with 29 schools to offer an introductory engineering course for college credit.
K-12 preparation is just one problem that is beyond the ability of a single institution or discipline to solve. James Martin, a British physicist and computer scientist, believed the big challenges of the current century demanded an interdisciplinary response. So, as Tom Grose reports in “Where Dots Connect,” he endowed an unusual institute at Oxford, his alma mater, that welcomes collaborations among a range of researchers to tackle energy and the environment, health and medicine, and governance and ethics.
Martin pegged climate change as a “mega problem,” as have others. One effort to mitigate a leading cause – greenhouse gas emissions – is to sequester captured carbon dioxide. But as Charles Choi writes in “Carbon Creativity,” a number of scientists around the country are pursuing a fascinating alternative – finding new and productive uses for CO2. These range from more efficient exploitation of oil and gas deposits and thermal energy sources to generating biofuel from algae and making plastics.
If you have ideas for feature stories, please send them our way. Please send, as well, your nominations for an upcoming special issue of Prism devoted to Faculty Under Forty – the talented researchers and passionate teachers who are transforming engineering.
Mark Matthews
m.matthews@asee.org