Lecturer to Address Need for Engineering Education

PULLMAN, Wash, — Engineers in industry are essential for keeping a competitive edge in an  increasingly global marketplace, but American students are less and less interested in entering the field compared with their foreign counterparts.

Norman Fortenberry, director of the National Academy of Engineering’s Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education, will speak on “Linking Learning Processes to Instructional Practices in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education’’ at 4 p.m. on Monday (Sept. 19) in room 102, Carpenter Hall on the Pullman campus of Washington State University.

The event will be the first in a series sponsored by the Engineering Education Research Center. + View MoreAs founding director of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE), Fortenberry is responsible for developing the programs, organizational linkages and personnel required to implement an ambitious new effort to achieve and maintain excellence in engineering education.

Prior to his tenure at CASEE, Fortenberry held a variety of senior leadership roles in the National Science Foundation (NSF), where his responsibilities included working to improve undergraduate education as well as broadening access and participation in science and engineering by underrepresented populations and institutions.

Washington State University’s Engineering Education Research Center (EERC) got underway in January 2005, with shared leadership from faculty from the College of Engineering and Architecture and the College of Education. The center addresses  growing concerns in the U.S. about fewer students entering the field of engineering, the preparation of engineers for a competitive global economy and the diversity of the engineering workforce. The center is working to empower educators as they encourage students to enter engineering and enable them to succeed in engineering education.

The university community is invited to attend and learn how to make instructional practices more effective for educating diverse student populations. A reception will follow the lecture.