As a psychologist at a technical university, Professor Wijnand IJsselstein (Department of Industrial Engineering & Innovation Sciences) has perhaps a different view on how we could better educate engineers. He advocates the idea of broadening their academic horizons in order to create more critical, creative and socially-savvy graduates. And he’s not alone in this opinion. In many places, including TU/e, engineering education is undergoing a quiet transformation. While a mastery of math and science is still paramount, engineering students are increasingly encouraged (or even required at some universities) to take humanities classes or more fully develop their ‘soft’ skills. And a quick perusal of job ads reveals that many companies are hoping to hire engineers who can effectively interact with clients and co-workers as well have a bit of insight into how their products will ultimately be used.

“Much of what we design”, continues Professor IJsselstein, “needs to take into account the end-user. How will these products fit into their lives? What are their abilities? You run the risk of designing something that is a mismatch with the end-user if you don’t consider these questions.”

Engineering for humans

Remember the VCR? (Video cassette recorder for you young-ins or the videorecorder as it was known here in the Netherlands.) Sure, the technology is now utterly antiquated but it’s a classic example of an engineering misstep - at least when it came to the interface. The VCR offered the user various options. First and foremost, you could play your pre-recorded, VHS tapes in it. That was the easy option; just pop in a tape, hit play and… voila!... Dirty Dancing or Indiana Jones was yours to enjoy. But things got murkier from there on out. You also had the option to record programs from broadcast TV via the VCR’s programmable clock, negating the need to rush home from the pub so you wouldn’t miss Friends. However, legions of people had either a) absolutely no idea how to use this function or b) it took them dozens of hours or the help of a more technologically-astute neighbor (probably an engineer!) to figure it out. What’s the moral of the story? What seems simple, obvious or necessary to an engineer doesn’t always translate to us normal folks (and vice versa). And this example begs the question: can we avoid future engineering blunders like the VCR interface by changing how we educate engineering students?

Els van Dijk, 28, is a PhD candidate in Human-Technology Interaction and has experienced this phenomenon more recently. Before re-entering academia, she spent six months working in “the real world” as a user experience designer and, as her current area of expertise would suggest, she has an interest in these sorts of issues. She explains one such discrepancy at her former job: “We designed an app with tabs you could swipe through with dots on the bottom to let the user know which page they were on. But then there wasn’t enough room for those dots when our design went to the engineers. Instead of talking to us, they just decided to remove that feature. But that one small feature made our app more user-friendly! It came down to a lack of understanding between the two groups. If there’s one thing I learned from the work world, it’s that communication is really key.”

During her internship in Sweden, Department of Industrial Design master’s student Doenja Oogjes, 23, worked on an EU project to introduce district heating systems in the UK - a common form of centrally-controlled heating in Sweden. Her group wanted to understand how end-users would react to the new system and says it was a struggle to convey the importance of that idea. “The engineers were like ‘But they won’t have any control over the system. Why do we care what they think?’ In the end, Oogjes’s group conducted an independent, small-scale pilot and their results provided some valuable insights, “It turns out that people feel very differently about heating in the UK. In Sweden, they value their clothing. They know how to dress better against the cold than people in the UK and that affects how people feel about the warmth of their homes. When the engineers actually saw our methods and results, they were really interested. Now, they want to do another pilot. But it took a long time to convince them. It would be good if everyone had the same perspective on these things. To me, it’s obvious that you should always consider the human and the humanity of the end-user.”

A whole new engineer?

But how exactly do you groom a generation of engineers who will “consider the human?” In their new book, “A Whole New Engineer: The Coming Revolution in Engineering Education,” American professors David E. Goldberg and Mark Somerville argue that most current schools of engineering too often produce graduates that lack creativity, imagination and people skills: “Not only does engineering education tend to emphasize logical/mathematical intelligence to the exclusion of other ways of knowing, but also it operates with a fixed mind-set.” The authors state that previous efforts to reform engineering education have neglected addressing one key question: What are the underlying values in engineering education? Without questioning these values, according to Goldberg and Somerville, any changes in pedagogy or content will ultimately fail in creating real change in how engineers are educated. They suggest four core values or pillars for reform: trust, courage, connection and joy. ‘For years, engineering education has focused on teaching the right stuff, in the right way. It’s a very scientific approach, and both the content and the teaching approach matter. But just as important (although much less visible) are the implicit values that we as educators bring into the classroom. The 21^st century demands a new kind of engineer, a new kind of engineering education, and a new set of educational values.’

It’s a concept echoed by Professor IJsselstein’s ideas on how to train more well-rounded engineers: “I think everyone could benefit from taking other courses - a philosophy of science class or epistemology, for example. These courses create a layer of perception that is good for your personal development. There’s great value in altering your perspective because it makes you a better scientist. You learn that there isn’t one single truth and that we are all subject to our own biases and prejudices.”

And, of course, these sorts of changes are taking place right here at TU/e. In a recent interview with alumni magazine Slash, Lex Lemmens, Professor of Academic Science and Engineering Education, discusses the impulse for creating the university’s Bachelor College. “It was not a gamble, but rather the result of good thinking, studying the literature and a look at best practices. We saw good examples at MIT and the University of Utrecht. After WWII, HASS (humanities, arts and social sciences) education was introduced at MIT… this was the inspiration for the USE (User, Society, Enterprise) subjects for TU/e’s Bachelor College. We want our engineers to know how to apply their discipline in the context of users, society and companies.”

Client-focused, creative, entrepreneurial

Developing non-technical skills and knowledge might not just be good for educating better engineers, but those students who expand their outlook will undoubtedly have an edge in the job market. Gerton van Rooij is the global director of engineering for TASS International - a spin-off company of TNO that provides knowledge and software to the automotive industry. As a long-time manager, he looks for some specific things when hiring new engineers. “I’ve had a lot of students come with their resume in hand and I always ask them one basic question: who was happy with your thesis project? They usually say themselves - ‘I was very happy with what I did’ - and that answer tells me a lot about that person’s focus. I would imagine they’d also mention the company that sponsored their thesis project. What about the company, your client? Are they using what you created? When I ask that question, I almost always hear ‘Ummmm, I have no idea.’”

Van Rooij says he’s also impressed with a go-get-‘em attitude: “I met this Chinese engineer and she wanted a job at Ford. She really put the pressure on them by saying ‘You’d better hire me fast or the other guy will hire me. She even got her colleague a job! Now, that’s an engineer who understands how to do business. A lot of engineers wouldn’t be able to be that entrepreneurial.”

As a second-year master’s student, Doenja Oogjes is now tackling the daunting task of finding a job. Luckily, she’s found that some of her inherent talents and skills - skills that are considered on the soft side of science - could be helpful for in her future career path. “A lot of people in my department have the creativity and ability to understand different areas of technical expertise and then link people together who would otherwise find it difficult to communicate with each other. I never thought it as a valuable skill until I got into my internship project. It’s intuitive for me and I didn’t realize I had it until I got around people who don’t. Now I know it’s a special ability and one of my selling points.”