In the not too distant past a person's skills, knowledge, understanding and competence were judged largely on the initial education and training that he or she had undertaken, with continuing professional development (CPD) being seen as an optional extra by those who had enthusiasm for it. Gradually CPD has come to be recognized as an important,…

Sustainability, enhancement of personal skills, social aspects of technology, management and entrepreneurship are of increasing concern for engineers and therefore for engineering education. In 1996 at Delft University of Technology this led to the introduction of a subject on sustainable entrepreneurship and technology in the course programmes of…

The main objective of the WomEng European research project was to assess when, how and why women decide to or not to study engineering. This question was addressed through an international cross-comparison by an interdisciplinary research team in seven European countries. This article presents, in the first part, the methodological toolbox…

This paper analyses the influence of external factors that affect the decision-making process in the selection of telecommunications engineering studies. Particularly, we have studied the influence of factors related to the generation of expectations about the studies. A survey was conducted on a sample of 701 male and female telecommunications…

Even in self-organized project-based learning, the instructors' role re-mains critical, especially in the initial orientation provided to the students in order to grasp the educational goals and the various roles they may undertake to achieve them. In this paper we survey a few questions proposed to that purpose in a web-based software engineering…

A new strategic vision of the extensively debated European higher education is proposed with focus on civil engineering. Civil engineering education for the future is considered with relevance to potential world-wide trends and anticipated societal requirements and, therefore, required employee qualifications of the construction-related providers…

Present engineering has to deal with increasingly complex systems. In particular, this is the case in electrical engineering. Though this is obvious in microelectronics, also in the field of power systems engineers have to design, operate and maintain highly complex systems such as power grids, energy converters and electrical drives. This is…

In this paper, the current profile of the environmental engineer and the programming of the subject "Environmental Engineering and Technology" corresponding to the studies of Mining Engineering at the University of Oviedo in Spain, is discussed. Professional profile, student knowledge prior to and following instruction as well as…

Nationally, there is continuing debate about appropriate methods for conducting educational evaluations. The U.S. Department of Education has placed a priority on "scientifically" based evaluation methods and has advocated a "gold standard" of randomized controlled experimentation. The priority suggests that randomized control methods are best,…

The Extraordinary Women Engineers Project (EWEP) is a well known federation representing a large number of organizations, societies and universities, which are devoted to encourage more number of young women to become engineers. The program plans to provide various personal stories, role models, educational resources and training to inspire and…

"Open Doors" is a long-standing, comprehensive information resource on over 565,000 international students in the United States in 2004/05 and on over 191,000 U.S. students who studied abroad for academic credit in 2003/04. The Institute of International Education, the largest and most experienced U.S. higher education exchange agency,…

Schools are raising standards to improve academic and technical achievement and intellectual growth for all groups of students, particularly at-risk students. This newsletter contains tools and strategies that school leaders and teachers are using successfully to help students meet higher expectations. It organizes the techniques into five…

This paper summarizes the findings of a twenty year old pre-engineering program that is aimed at improving both the recruitment and retention of under-represented students pursuing careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). The Wright Science Technology and Engineering Preparatory Program (STEPP) was initiated in 1988 for…

Volume 1 of this two-volume report contains analyses of key aspects of the scope, quality, and vitality of the Nation's science and engineering enterprise and global science and technology. The report presents information on science, mathematics, and engineering education at all levels; the scientific and engineering workforce; U.S. and…

NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center along with their partners at other NASA centers, and in private industry, are designing and beginning to develop the next generation of spacecraft to transport cargo, equipment, and human explorers to space. These vehicles are part of the Constellation…