Learning Engineering: A View on Where the Field Is at, Where It’s Going, and the Research Needed

Abstract

Although the idea of learning engineering dates back to the 1960s, there has been an explosion of interest in the area in the last decade. This interest has been driven by an expansion in the computational methods available both for scaled data analysis and for much faster experimentation and iteration on student learning experiences. This article describes the findings of a virtual convening brought together to discuss the potential of learning engineering and the key opportunities available for learning engineering over the next decades. We focus the many possibilities into ten key opportunities for the field, which in turn group into three broad areas of opportunity. We discuss the state of the current art in these ten opportunities and key points of leverage. In these cases, a relatively modest shift in the field’s priorities and work may have an outsized impact.