This research was commissioned by The Ove Arup Foundation to survey the current roles of mathematics in undergraduate engineering education in the UK, with a particular focus on civil engineering, and to identify some visions of future directions for the teaching of mathematics. The research took place from May to December 2002, using a methodology of interviews and visits with universities, professional institutions and civil engineering companies, supported by a literature review and a questionnaire survey of university civil engineering departments.
Mathematics plays a central part in the formation of civil engineers in the UK, both in the form of an entry requirement to undergraduate courses, and as a core underpinning element of those courses. The role of mathematics in civil engineering has been a high-profile issue for some years, and it has recently come to the fore when the professional institutions for Civil and Structural Engineering decided to stimulate debate by temporarily removing the requirement for A-level mathematics as an entry qualification to civil engineering degrees.
The pressing need to recruit and retain students on engineering courses means that it is natural for academics to focus on the mathematics problem at the interface between school and university. Yet the role that mathematics plays in professional practice has changed radically in the last 30 years. Today, "computational mathematics" is perceived as a tremendous opportunity, pushing forward the boundaries of civil engineering design. Within this, mathematics as explicit work by individual engineers has evolved into mathematics as a distributed activity across design teams and the computers which support them.
In order to resolve the apparent contradictions of mathematics as problem or opportunity, it is necessary to consider the different uses of mathematics in engineering practice: the direct usefulness of mathematical techniques and ideas to practice (eg. to do a load case analysis of a certain kind of structure) and their indirect usefulness - the ways in which mathematics contributes to the development of engineering expertise and judgment. Mathematics is and will remain crucial, and this report addresses a set of questions facing engineering mathematics education:
| May 02 | Presentation at the ACED/ICE/IStructE joint meeting (Institution of Civil Engineers, London): "Mathematics and civil engineers" [ACED-presentation.pdf, 139 KB] |
| Sept 02 | Presentation at the LTSN Engineering workshop Learning and Teaching Support and Resources for Engineers, Loughborough University, 5 September 2002: "Should we reassess the role of mathematics in engineering education?" [LTSN-presentation.pdf, 12 KB] |
| June 03 | FINAL REPORT OF THE PROJECT: Mathematics in the
University Education of Engineers [Kent-Noss-report-Engineering-Maths.pdf,
1013 KB]; Appendices to the Final Report [Kent-Noss-report-Appendices.doc, 171 KB]; |
Please contact Phillip Kent, p.kent@ioe.ac.uk, and Richard Noss, r.noss@ioe.ac.uk.
The REMIT project developed from another project in the area of engineering education and practice which we carried out in 2001, MCEE - Mathematical Components of Engineering Expertise
