Page 8 - Annual Report 2016-2017

STATEMENT BY
THE VICE-PRESIDENT
Vice President, Ralph APPEL
The next generation of young engineers will play a major role in the future of our profession. Especially in times like this, when massive changes occur due to rapid technological developments, like the digitalization processes, future experts need to have the very best education and preparation.
In order to prepare those future experts for the things to come, the many challenges that the digital transformation poses have to be taken into account. What impact will digitalization have on the engineering education? What does the “digital transformation” mean for HEIs in their efforts to design the engineering education for current and future tasks?
To make the engineering education t for the future, several prerequisites must be ful lled: The rst requirement is that the digital transformation has to nd its way into the teaching and learning contents of all engineering programs. Curricula have to be developed in such a way.
Since interdisciplinary work is a major aspect of the everyday work of engineers, a situation that is even inten- si ed by the digital transformation, the second requirement is the reduction of existing barriers (organizational and others) to facilitate the creation of interdisciplinary modules and study programs. The cooperation between engineering branches has to be further improved.