Human-Centered Engineering

Engineering is a distinctive career path at Fulbright University Vietnam, a liberal arts university. By integrating well-designed general education and a rigorous engineering curriculum, the Human-centered Engineering program at this university can be easily distinguished from those at other universities in Vietnam. In their typical jobs, engineers apply creatively the principles of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) to design, build, maintain, improve, and even invent things to address critical human needs. Such designs and improvements include structures, machines, devices, systems, materials, and processes that may have become part of our everyday life. Over the past few decades, industries have developed and undergone a radical technological transformation. The adoption of recent technologies is shifting the frontier between the tasks performed by humans and those performed by machines and algorithms, increasing the demand for new job roles and skillsets. In addition, increasingly complex problems that human beings are facing often require multidisciplinary, human-centered, and transformative approaches. There has been convincing evidence that future great engineers need the liberal arts to develop the required emerging skill sets such as critical thinking and analysis, active life-long learning, complex problem-solving, self-management, working with people, management, and communication of activities.
Traditional engineering education programs in the world and those in other universities in Vietnam, however, focus heavily on specialized STEM-related knowledge and skills. They often play much less attention to students’ development of knowledge, skills and mindset that could only be obtained under the umbrella of liberal arts through arts, humanities, and social sciences courses, new pedagogical approaches, and extra-curricular activities. On the contrary, at Fulbright University Vietnam, the Engineering curriculum has been designed based on a student-centered, multidisciplinary, project-based, future-fit approach. The Engineering major courses are designed and developed to provide students with broad knowledge in a variety of specializations, including Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Control Theory (Robotics) and Entrepreneurship. The sequence of courses on each of these Engineering specializations range from Foundation level (i.e., 100-level) through Intermediate level (i.e., 200-level) to Advanced level (i.e., 300-level). The Advanced-level courses and two-semester Capstone projects provide students with deep knowledge and a chance to apply what they have learned into real-world problems. In addition, students must complete a well-balanced set of courses in mathematics, natural sciences, arts, humanities, and social sciences to be awarded a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Although students will be required to take half of the minimum number of credits for graduation in engineering, they will have a certain degree of freedom of choosing elective courses to pursue their interest of study with engineering. After graduation, Engineering students may choose different career options such as starting-up their own companies, working in industry or enrolling into post-graduate programs.