by Linda J. Howe Changed engineering practice demands a changed education system, especially if Canada is to compete internationally, a nation-wide report on engineering studies concludes. Although the "system has served the profession well to the present [it]) is inadequate for the future," says the report, done for the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers and the National Committee of Deans of Engineering and Applied Science. Four people from each organization took three or four years to prepare the report, says a former UW dean of engineering, Dr. Bill Lennox, who sat on the committee in the early years. This report should be looked at "side-by-side" with two other reports that deal with various aspects of engineering profession, adds the present dean of engineering, Dr. David Burns. The two are "More than Just Numbers", from the Canadian Committee on Women in Engineering, which examines social and cultural barriers to women entering engineering, and a report by the Canadian Engineering Human Resources Board which outlines the number of engineers needed a few years down the road. The new report from CCPE and NCDEAS examines Canadian engineering education -- from elementary and high school, to undergraduate and graduate programs, and continuing education and training. It identifies issues and problems and ways to address them, and recommends actions for educational institutes, professional organizations, industry and government to ensure adequate numbers of trained engineers. The study has 48 recommendations in eight broad categories -- pre-university education; undergraduate engineering programs; graduate engineering programs and students; engineering faculties and universities; engineering professoriate; post university; and implementation. A key recommendation deals with equipment: "Policies should be adopted and funds provided for the orderly replacing and updating of teaching equipment, design tools, and space commensurate with industrial standards. Since the effective lifetime of equipment varies widely, that lifetime should be set in consultation among engineering educators, university administrators, industry representatives and government officials." Lennox agrees. "Part of the problem is that engineering is an equipment intensive program. It's become extremely expensive in the last eight years," he says. It's particularly important for engineers to have more funding for modern equipment, Burns says. Small group work in classes relies on modern, computer-based design methods. Students, alumni and faculty have already recognized the need for up-to-date equipment, the dean noted. About three years ago engineering students voluntarily agreed to pay a $75 fee to set up an endowment fund, proceeds to be used to purchase equipment. There's now $880,000 in the Waterloo Engineering Endowment Fund (WEEF). Interest and "a bit of capital" is used to buy equipment, Burns says. In the winter term another $70,000 will be spent. Money for equipment for the engineering faculty also comes from the academic development fund and from alumni, as well as from UW's regular budget, Burns says. ADF provided $432,000 for new lab stations when the electrical engineering program expanded. And in 1991-92, engineering alumni gave $317,000, he noted. Besides updating equipment, the report says, universities need to reduce class sizes, increase the number of engineering graduates, restructure curricula to include newer engineering disciplines, make it easier to enter doctoral programs, hire more practising engineers for teaching and research, establish distance education networks and develop specialized master's programs. At UW, outstanding undergraduate students can be admitted directly into the PhD program upon completion of a bachelors degree "if warranted", Burns says. Although UW does have industrial engineers teaching in graduating programs and participate in research projects "we should do more", the dean agrees. UW's engineering faculty is "at the head of the pack" when it comes to students completing graduate degrees, he said. "Dear to my heart" is the idea of a distance education network to link Canadian engineering faculties, said the dean. Currently there is a proposal to link the engineering faculties of McMaster University, University of Toronto and UW with several industrial nodes. "We're trying to get funding." The network would be linked by telecommunications and should make it easier for industrial engineers to become involved with teaching and supervising of projects at universities as well as in life-long learning. "In 20 years industry will be a vital part of training students at the graduate level and that may drift down to the undergraduates," Burns said. The report says that engineering students should develop competencies in a language and culture through formal studies and work in Canada and abroad. UW meets this recommendation through its many exchange programs. Engineering awareness should begin as early as elementary school, the report says. More elementary teachers should be hired who are competent in mathematics and science; and school boards should promote the teaching of science and mathematics as a "prestige" career for school teachers, create awards for teachers who develop students' interest in engineering, offer workshops, and encourage strong links among industry, teachers, students and counsellors. "Most elementary school teachers don't know what engineering is. They lump engineers with scientists," Burns complains. "Children don't know about engineering. There's no engineering course in elementary or high school." Despite that, UW's engineering faculty "still gets the best student intake in the province. Our cutoff is higher than other schools of engineering," he adds. The council and the committee wanted to look at engineering education because other countries are concerned about the same issue. "We looked at studies from other countries and picked what was applicable to Canada and tried to improve on that," Lennox said. Engineering practice is changing, mainly because rapid technological developments have profound implications; competition is becoming increasingly national and international; and society has become increasingly concerned with environmental issues. The final recommendation says a CCPE and NCDEAS task force should co-ordinate the implementation of the recommendations. The earlier report, "More than Just Numbers", looks at social and cultural barriers responsible for under- represented women in engineering and ways to encourage women to study engineering, Burns says. He maintains that there are no physical or intellectual barriers to women entering the engineering profession. It also looked at the predicted shortage of engineers in Canada by the year 2000. Some of the shortfall is attributed to engineering's decreasing share of total enrollment in university programs, the dwindling number of engineers immigrating from other countries and economic growth. But some of the shortfall is caused because "a lot of engineering grads go into non-technical jobs such as managerial, banking, medicine and law," Burns says. Engineering schools now have "a window of opportunity" to hire more women professors and math and science teachers "because teachers and professors hired to teach the baby- boomers will be retiring, opening up the field for new members who will be receiving their academic training in the next few years." Since Burns became UW's dean of engineering there has been a 75 per cent increase in the number of women faculty, from four to seven tenure-track and two definite term appointments. "UW has already done a great deal to encourage women," Lennox notes. Last year the faculty set up a special committee to review issues associated with women in engineering. The faculty also realizes that female students are turned off science and technology subjects by the time they are in grades 7 and 8. So the faculty has set up a series of on-going activities to tackle the problem, Lennox says. On-going operations include an "open door" project, "A Day with a Difference", Exploration '92, Pathmakers, the Engineering and Science Quest camp, workshops, and pamphlets. These activities are designed to provide mentoring and role models to elementary, high school and university students through education, hands-on workshops and visits. As well, the UW-wide Incentive Challenge Fund has been set up to increase the pool of female faculty candidates. It also provides financial assistance for students who might not otherwise receive funding.