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Statement of Task and Work Plan
STATEMENT OF TASK
To determine the extent to which advanced manufacturing technologies are treated in undergraduate engineering education and to explore ways to foster the integration of such technologies into undergraduate engineering education to prepare students to enter the workforce carrying knowledge and skills ready to apply to manufacturing or to design for manufacturing, the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) proposes to conduct a consensus study, informed by a workshop and expert presentations.
An ad hoc committee will consider advanced manufacturing technologies of most interest to commercial and defense industrial base (DIB) manufacturers and plan and conduct a workshop to explore the needs of the DIB and to highlight exemplary practices of advanced manufacturing treatment in undergraduate engineering education. The committee will consider the workshop discussions, the existing literature base, and other relevant information to develop findings, options, and recommendations. Published output of the activity will be a consensus report with the committee’s findings, options, and recommendations.
The goals of the study are to determine:
- What advanced manufacturing technologies are taught in undergraduate engineering, why are they chosen, and how are they
- treated? Does the treatment cover the range from design, to prototyping, to manufacturing? How is industrial participation or expertise in manufacturing and advanced manufacturing technologies coupled to undergraduate engineering education?
- How do capstone courses (and similar) address advanced manufacturing technologies and their transfer to manufacturing? Do some capstone projects treat manufacturing processes as well as design and prototyping? What are best practices and methods for collaboration and experiential learning?
- What advanced manufacturing technologies are most important to the DIB? What are DIB expectations for engineering graduates with respect to advanced manufacturing technologies and manufacturing processes? Are practicum experiences such as capstone courses, thesis work, industry internships, or co-op programs favored?
- Highlight, to the extent possible, best practices and exemplary engineering courses that incorporate advanced manufacturing technologies, especially those covering manufacturing considerations.
- Recommend steps to better integrate advanced manufacturing technologies into undergraduate engineering education and to equip graduates for technology transfer to manufacturing settings.
WORK PLAN
The project will be carried out by an ad hoc committee of about 10 members, appointed by the NAE president, consisting of individuals with current or previous experience in industry, academia, and federal and state governments.
This 18-month project will be conducted in two phases.
Phase I
Workshop and information gathering: A committee of researchers will prepare for and conduct a workshop to frame the scope of the research and highlight relevant programs of significance. Researchers will survey companies working in the DIB to determine the advanced manufacturing techniques they use, would like to use, and/or would like to see in engineering education. The committee will then issue an open call for nominations to engineering school deans to identify capstone and other engineering courses that use
those techniques. The committee will develop evaluation criteria and select the programs to be highlighted during the workshop. The criteria will likely cover the range and types of advanced manufacturing technologies covered, inclusion of technologies of particular interest to the defense industrial base, and the extent to which the program has demonstrated positive student outcomes (i.e., has been shown to prepare students to use the technologies in their job). The workshop agenda will include an overview of the current state of the use of advanced manufacturing techniques in capstone design and other engineering courses, discussions on how to bridge identified gaps between the technologies used in the DIB and those used by undergraduate engineering students, and effective practices for infusing the former in capstone design and other engineering courses.
Presenters will also describe the major drivers of change in their capstone and other engineering courses, such as new technologies or workforce and talent demand. The output of Phase I will be the workshop transcript, which will capture the discussions and will be provided to the committee as input to its consensus report.
The committee may conduct one or more open sessions in which experts are invited to make presentations that supplement information obtained in the workshop.
Phase II
Findings and Recommendations: The committee will review workshop materials and other relevant information to develop a short consensus report with findings, options, and recommendations. The committee’s study will be informed in part by past studies related to domestic manufacturing such as Making Value for America.1 The study committee shall develop a final briefing that will present the overall findings of the scope of the current study and recommendations for applying the findings and for further study.
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1 National Academy of Engineering, 2015, Making Value for America: Embracing the Future of Manufacturing, Technology, and Work: Summary, Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, https://doi.org/10.17226/21700.
