Unfolding of Innovation – Combining Engineering and Liberal Arts

Sanjay Arora

In today’s world when there is a lot of confusion about which subjects students should ideally choose, the trade-off between liberal arts and sciences remains one of the most difficult tasks. Science is extremely important as it helps us to understand how our world works whereas liberal arts helps us to understand how we can change the world we live in and make it a better place to reside.

LIBERAL ARTS

The study of liberal arts goes back to the ancient Greeks who considered it to be the ultimate mark of an educated person. There are many subjects that fall within the ambit of liberal arts such as:

Humanities - includes art, literature, linguistics, philosophy, religion, ethics, modern foreign languages, music, theatre, speech and classical languages etc.

Social sciences- includes history, psychology, law, sociology, politics, gender studies, anthropology, economics and business informatics etc.

Natural sciences- includes astronomy, biology, chemistry, physics, botany, zoology, geology and earth sciences etc.

Formal science- includes mathematics, logic and statistics.

Key skills gained out of a liberal arts degree include effective oral and communication skills, problem solving and pattern intelligence, ideational skills, numerical skills, ethical decision making, teamwork, organisational and time management skills among others.

ENGINEERING

Engineering is the application of science and mathematics to solve problems of day to day life. Engineers figure out how things work and advent practical uses for several scientific discoveries. Engineering is one of the cornerstones of STEM education, an interdisciplinary curriculum designed to motivate students to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It further by focusing on three most important pillars of problem solving i.e. Efficiency, affordability and sustainability makes our lives easier.

Engineering + liberal arts

If we really want to unleash the forces that works behind a scientific mind, it’s important to know about the socio- economic and cultural practices of the period concerned, and this is acquired through the study of arts. From ancient times also, there are numerous examples of people who were Jack of all trade but masters of none. For example: Rousseau, a key figure in French revolution of 1789 was not only a philosopher but also a writer and composer. Thus, it is All Round Excellence that really matters. And in light of the above, several integrated programes are gaining traction among the newly higher secondary pass-outs, who face the dilemma of choosing from two or more courses which are of equal interest to them.

There are several universities that offer such courses wherein the knowledge and essence of both liberal arts and engineering are combined to offer an elusive area of study.

 One such is liberal arts and engineering studies (LAES), a degree jointly offered by colleges of liberal arts and engineering.

Moreover, there are several other programmes in the 3+2 curriculum that only a few universities offer. These are dual degree programmes lasting for a period of 5 years, at the end of which the student graduates with two bachelor’s degree – one from their liberal arts programme and one from their engineering programme. In such courses, usually a student spends first three years at a liberal arts school and last two years at engineering school affiliated with the liberal arts school.

Several other universities/colleges offering variety of integrated courses include-

1.    BS degree LAES is offered by Cal Poly’s College of Engineering, California in collaboration with college of liberal arts.

2.     Dartmouth College which offers students from participating colleges the opportunity to study at Thayer school of Engineering as part of 2-1-1 program apart from also offering the traditional 3-2 year program.

3.    York University offers a program for UG in Undecided Major which enables students to begin their first year of studies without actually having to select a program in which to major. In this way, it enables one to take cue from variety of courses and know about which is best for them.

4.     Carnegie Mellon University’s college of engineering and fine arts through the BXA (X in BXA is the intersection of disciplines, innovation and curiosity. The X here changes depending on the academic unit a student integrates with their college of fine arts) programs.

ADVANTAGES AND RELEVANCE

These programmes prepares students for a wide range of innovative careers in emerging fields such as AI, block-chains, game design, digital media production and management among others. They also enable them to combine their knowledge from both fields and look out for solutions to several problems.

During the reveal of the iPad 2, Steve Jobs mentioned, “It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that makes our heart sing.”

It is but natural then that engineering programmes have increased in quantity and content. However, only when we apply the principles of Liberal Arts to the skills of engineering,  true innovation unfolds.

 The writer is Chief Mentor and CEO, Maven Career Coaching, Panchkula.