Preparing future engineers for work in multidisciplinary environments

In the 20th century, engineering innovations and developments flourished within narrowly focussed and isolated disciplines that operated independently from each other and did not face a need to do otherwise. Today, this model of operation is no longer valid. Real and important breakthroughs are increasingly being achieved as a result of the work of multidisciplinary teams operating across boundaries that once existed between their disciplines. Inspired and motivated by this reality, the Faculty of Built Environment and Engineering, at the Queensland University of Technology, is developing a vision for its future and a model for its operations that provides a clear philosophical position with the Scholarship of Integration as the dominant work of the Faculty's leadership. The principles of valuing and utilising the enormous potential of interdisciplinary, collaborative and integrative approaches paved the way for innovative opportunities for development at the intersection of other forms of scholarship. These opportunities advance Ernest Boyer's work by using it to set the agenda and drive the endeavours of a large academic unit. The Faculty model is represented as three intersecting activities corresponding to the scholarships of teaching, discovery and application. At the centre, where the three circles overlap, is the scholarship of integration which drives the main thrust of Faculty operations and is given highest priority. To attain this priority, program structures will target collaborative teaching utilising approaches such as project based learning and workplace integrated learning. Research and service activity will be based on integrated themes of that provide solutions to externally posed problems. This paper will present the Faculty model and describe how it is being used to derive a philosophy and a framework for designing Built Environment and Engineering programs. This approach aims at enabling students to achieve learning outcomes that address the depth and breadth necessary for their success through multi-disciplinary collaboration and integration. Students will be prepared to function in a world where single-discipline-based applications and innovations are no longer the dominant paradigm.