'Necessary to engineers of the new generation': what is important for engineers to know?

Interest in establishing programs of Liberal Studies in Engineering that are not designed to be accredited by Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) necessarily intersects with the larger issue of how understandings of the liberal arts and social sciences should be incorporated into B.S. engineering programs. Debate over how (or how much) engineering education should focus on science and mathematical instruction is a long one; it stretches back to the early twentieth century and encompasses the proselytizing of Vannevar Bush (1890-1974), a leader at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and in the post-World War II creation of the National Science Foundation. Above all, Bush advocated basic science' as the root source of technological innovation in the modern world and he heralded science and math as the essential components of engineering education. The danger that engineering education which emphasizes - or gives credence to - the humanities and social sciences can be viewed as engineering lite' is not illusory and represents a perspective commonly held by leaders in engineering education. Unfortunately, a danger that might accompany the proliferation of programs in Liberal Studies (B.A.) in Engineering is that B.S. program administrators will perceive such programs as the only place where non-mathematical and non-scientific concerns and issues should be engaged within a broad-based engineering curriculum.