The Education of an Engineer in a Holistic

The Education of an Engineer in a Holistic Age A Latin American Perspective... 

Overall, research has shown that LTS as an educational tool addresses development in all of the ABET a-k outcomes (ABET, 2008), many of the ASCE BOK 2nd edition additional outcomes (American Society for Civil Engineering, 2008), as well as many of the attitudinal dispositions highlighted in the ASCE BOK (Bielefeldt, Dewoolkar, Caves, Berdanier, Paterson, 2011). Additionally, the nature of LTS projects, be it the hands-on, real world aspect, the service aspect, or the context rich aspect, seems to motivate students differently than traditional engineering educational approaches, helping in the attraction and retention of a more diverse population into the profession. These results point to LTS as an appropriate addition in the education of holistic engineers, able to address complex social issues. 

The curricular scheme below was prepared by the author as an example of the holistic approach to engineering education in Sao Paulo University. It includes accreditation units as the measurement of coursework, with one (1) unit of accreditation equal to a 50 minute class. One hour of lab or supervised work is equal to half (1/2) of an accreditation unit. 

Study abroad programs have evolved into many different variations. Vaz (2008) notes an extensive study by Alan Parkinson (2007) providing a taxonomy of engineering study abroad programs, and comments extensively on the scalability of various models. Of particular interest in that discussion, as it is here, are the less traditional, project-based programs which provide a different approach to holistic education for engineering students. 

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