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Chapter 35 - Interdisciplinarity in Engineering Research and Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2015

By
Nancy J. Nersessian  and
Wendy C. Newstetter
Edited by
Aditya Johri  and
Barbara M. Olds
Nancy J. Nersessian
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Wendy C. Newstetter
Affiliation:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Aditya Johri
Affiliation:
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Barbara M. Olds
Affiliation:
Colorado School of Mines
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Summary

Disciplines are distinguished partly for historical reasons and reasons of administrative convenience (such as the organization of teaching and appointments) and partly because the theories which we construct to solve our problems have a tendency to grow into unified systems. But all this classification and distinction is a comparatively unimportant and superficial affair. We are not students of the same subject matter but students of problems. And problems may cut right across the border of any subject matter or discipline.

Sir Karl Popper Conjectures and Refutations (Popper, 1962, p. 67)

Introduction

Moves beyond disciplinary thought and practice abound today. National and international funding agencies are creating, facilitating, fostering boundary crossing and cross-disciplinary synergy and integration as a focal point of their agendas across the sciences, medicine, engineering, humanities, and arts. Research on interdisciplinarity (ID) as it is practiced in humanities and the sciences is also abundant, ranging from rich case studies of specific instances to bibliometric analyses that aim to map such things as patterns of interaction in scientific fields. To date, however, the research on ID as practiced in engineering fields is scant, both with respect to practice and to education. Yet, as noted in the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report on the engineer of 2020, the demands of twenty-first century engineering are such that education needs to be redefined starting at the undergraduate level:

The dissolution of boundaries between disciplines such that ‘imagination, diversity and capacity to adapt quickly have become essential qualities for both institutions and individuals, not only to facilitate research, but also to ensure immediate and broad-based application of research results related to the environment. To meet these complex challenges as well as urgent human needs, we need to…frame integrated interdisciplinary research questions and activities to merge data, approaches, and ideas across spatial, temporal and societal scales.

(NAE, 2005, p. 36, quoting AC-ERE, 2003)
Type
Chapter
Information
Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research , pp. 713 - 730
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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