Industry Fellows: A model for industry-academic collaboration in the engineering classroom

A recent major study on Engineering Education calls for centering 21 st century Engineering Education in professional practice 24 : ―[I]f students are to be prepared to enter new-century engineering, the center of engineering education should be professional practice, integrating technical knowledge and skills of practice.‖ Education policy bodies are increasingly cognizant that faculty and professional practitioners need to cooperate more closely in educating the next generation. Both the National Research Council, in their report How People Learn 3 and the Carnegie Foundation‘s report from their Preparation for the Professions Program 27 underscore the importance for educators to work with professional practitioners in practice-based fields such as engineering. Similar sentiments are expressed by the National Academy of Engineering in their recent report Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century 17 .