Educating the Computer Literate Engineer
April 25th, 1990
Invited paper to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Process Industries Meeting, Managing Information for Profit, the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre
S F Bush
Background
In the twenty years from 1960 computing had an increasing influence on engineering research and the more fundamental aspects of design, but during the last decade its influence on engineering and manufacturing practice has acquired the characteristic of a revolution. Broadly speaking over the last thirty years the computer has moved from being the specialised tool of a few mathematically able engineers and scientists to being an everyday resource of the many, possibly the majority of engineers today. This immense change has come about because of the rapid reduction in the hardware cost of computing. It is worth briefly reviewing that particular change because it both determines the present and is a pointer to the future.