A Topical Analysis of Mechanical Engineering Curricula

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2006 by Jarosz, Jeffrey P, Busch-Vishniac, Ilene J

III. FREQUENCY DATA: DEFIMNG THE BOK

Table 1 includes alphabetical lists of all topics which were listed as required by at least three of the nine institutions whose syllabi were examined.

In addition, 162 topics were required at only two institutions, and another 769 topics were required at just one. Table 2 is an alphabetical list of all topics which were listed as required by the majority of the nine institutions whose syllabi were examined. Five or more institutions constitute a consensus.

There are several interesting points that emerge from Tables 1 and 2. First, it is possible to consider the consensus list in Table 2 as defining the Body of Knowledge which undergraduates in mechanical engineering need to master. These topics define what is currendy taught, not necessarily what should be taught. However, they form a baseline for assessment of the mechanical engineering curriculum of the present and the future.

Other disciplines have attempted to define a BOK. The most well known is American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) "Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century," released in February 2004. The BOK is defined as the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to become a licensed professional civil engineer, based on ASCE Policy Statement 465 for making the master's degree a prerequisite for practice of civil engineering [10].

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Board of Engineering Education formed a BOK Task Force in June 2003, and ASME has completed a BOK for one specific area: the Engineering Management Certification. Completed in 2004, it lists eight domains with 49 knowledge areas and 170 sub-knowledge areas [11].

Second, the topic frequency information is a useful catalyst for auricular reform. It is as significant for what is absent as for what is present. For instance, the following do not appear on the list of topics required at a majority of the schools surveyed: bearings, biotechnology, boundary layerflow, continuity, debugging, flexure, rotational motion, shafis, thermochemistry, and trusses. On the other hand, some faculty on the team were surprised that refrigeration, sketching and waves made the list of topics required for every mechanical engineering major.

A reasonable question to ask is whether the consensus list reflects the material which we, as a community, wish to regard as the BOK essential to students graduating with a baccalaureate in mechanical engineering. If the answer is no, we must closely examine those topics we think should not be included in the list and those topics which we believe should be included but are missing.

Third, the consensus list spells out what elements comprise today's mechanical engineering curriculum. It includes specific technical topics which have traditionally fallen into the mechanical engineering domain, such as gears and refrigeration. There are topics which are identifiable as the fundamental science (mostly physics and mathematics) that is generally required for mechanical engineering students. Some topics on the ME consensus list are more traditionally related to other engineering disciplines: for instance, circuits, electricity, magnetism and optics seem more the domain of electrical engineering than mechanical. There are topics that relate more to the profession of engineering than to technical disciplines, such as ethics, project management, and writing technical reports, prescribed by ABET engineering criteria and sometimes called the "professional skills" as opposed to the "technical skills." The most specific topics on the list are the technical skill topics traditionally found in the mechanical engineering domain. The professional skill topics, such as communication and ethics, are far broader. Yet the professional skills should be taught and can be taught as effectively as the technical skills [12, 13].