Engineer of 2050: Thematic Analysis of CEEA-ACEG Workshop Provocations and Reflections

Abstract

The understanding of how engineering education might evolve to prepare future students for the opportunities and challenges that society will face is of great interest to educators and to the engineering profession. A special interest group of the CEEA-ACÉG was formed in 2017 with a mandate to facilitate the discussion on the identity and attributes of the Engineer of 2050. Among its other activities, this group ran three workshops (in 2017, 2018 and 2021) in which participants answered prompts on their vision of the future of the engineering profession, and the associated changes in engineering education necessary to train competent future engineers. This paper presents the results of a qualitative content analysis of the responses to these prompts, to highlight recurring themes and trends, and suggest some areas warranting further discussion or investigation. This work is intended to serve as a foundation on which the work of the special interest group can build in the coming years.