Dean's Lecture: Norman Fortenberry

Educating the Engineer of 2040

It's often asserted that engineering education faces new challenges in the 21st century. In this talk, Norman Fortenberry, executive director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), will summarize the challenges that will increasingly characterize engineering practice by the middle of the century, provide historical context that questions how new the challenges are, summarize the characteristics needed by the Engineer of 2040, and discuss the implications for how such engineers are prepared.

About Norman Fortenberry

Dr. Norman L. Fortenberry is the executive director of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), a global society of individual, institutional, and corporate members founded in 1893. ASEE advances innovation, excellence, and access at all levels of education for the engineering profession.  ASEE is broadly concerned with instruction, research, public service, professional practice, and societal awareness. Previously, Fortenberry served as the founding director of the Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) at the National Academy of Engineering (NAE). He served in various executive roles at the National Science Foundation (NSF) including as senior advisor to the NSF Assistant Director for Education and Human Resources and as director of the divisions of undergraduate education and human resource development. Fortenberry has also served as executive director of the National Consortium for Graduate Degrees for Minorities in Engineering and Science, Inc. (The GEM Consortium) and as a faculty member in the department of mechanical engineering at the Florida A&M University – Florida State University College of Engineering. Fortenberry was awarded the S.B., S.M., and Sc.D. degrees (all in mechanical engineering) by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.