February 2006 Mechanical Engineering: Editorial

editorial

Teaching Engineering Uniquely

By
John G. Falcioni,
Editor-in-Chief

What prompted Olin College to become so innovative in its teaching practices? It comes down to two vital factors: great vision and loads of money.

Traditional engineering schools teach first and then allow students to experiment. At the Olin College of Engineering—which boasts one of the most remarkable and innovative engineering teaching programs around—it's a case of first do and then learn it in a textbook. But that's not where the differences end between traditional engineering schools and this Needham, Mass., institution. Named after Franklin W. Olin, a Vermont-born engineer and founder of what today is Olin Corp., the school has no academic departments, offers its professors no tenure, and charges students no tuition. It has a higher percentage of female students and professors than almost any other U.S. engineering school.

The institution began serendipitously enough. The F.W. Olin Foundation and its trustees, who for years financed projects at dozens of engineering schools, decided to invest $460 million to start a new college of their own. The trustees understood that the National Science Foundation and other institutions have been at work to reform engineering education. They also understood that making changes to curriculums at established institutions is not the easiest thing to do.

Changing the way engineering is taught at schools in the U.S., in a way that can help the U.S. compete in a global economy, is a serious challenge being addressed by organizations such as ASME. Olin represents a specific test case of an entrepreneurial approach to fulfilling that mission.

Woodie Flowers, an MIT professor and member of ASME, who is advising Olin, said that if Olin becomes just another good engineering school, it will have failed. The goal is to do it differently and in a way that will be exportable to other colleges, Flowers told The Wall Street Journal recently.

The concept of doing first and theorizing second reflects the desires of industry to have schools produce graduates who can do more than turn concepts into working prototypes. Companies want graduates who are ready to work in interdisciplinary teams and focus on conceiving and designing products.

The school will graduate its first class in the spring. So far, Olin College has shown signs that it's working. Companies that have taken on Olin students as interns are elated with the quality of the individuals and their knowledge and entrepreneurship.

Of course, part of that can be attributed to the special breed that comprises Olin's nearly 300 undergraduates. Not only do SAT scores need to be high, but applicants are also evaluated on how well they work in teams and communicate.

The classes themselves are unique as well. For example, there's a freshman course that combines math, physics, and engineering, and some courses are taught using the Socratic method, which is geared to reasoning out the answers and making students think thoroughly about their processes.

One predecessor to Olin is Harvey Mudd College in California, which opened its doors to students in 1957 under the premise of being "the liberal arts college of engineering, science, and mathematics." Olin took some ideas, and even some staff, from Mudd. However, Olin remains a unique voice in an academic market increasingly under pressure from industry to produce graduates who are able to step in and produce.

The Olin experiment is a refreshing approach to teaching engineering. Its effectiveness is being watched closely as colleges and universities look at ways to change with the times.