Bridging the gap between education and practice in the design and development of engineering systems

In this essay, I focus on the challenge of educating our engineering students to be successful and ready to face the challenges posed in product design and development problems they will face in industry. I am concerned with design beyond just component design and design process courses. I am focusing on the design of systems; systems that are designed, developed, manufactured, and produced. I first propose the challenge and then discuss my response to this challenge by detailing my educational philosophy and specific initiatives I am undertaking.