Motorsports Engineering: Bridging the Divide Between Engineering and Technology with an Industry Focused Curriculum

Traditionally, engineering baccalaureate programs have emphasized theory and design, including a rigorous background in the basic sciences and mathematics in the curriculum. Alternatively, engineering technology' baccalaureate programs have required less theoretical and mathematical rigor, focusing more on application and the implementation of existing state-of-the-art technology. As leaders of both engineering and engineering technology curricula guide the continuous improvement of existing programs and consider the creation of new programs, they must strengthen their relationship with industry to ensure that their respective programs reflect the needs of the industries that their graduates will enter. As industries change and advance their technologies and processes, new programs may need development by academia to meet the evolving demands of new industrial specialties. Plans of study for these new programs should be guided by advice from industry to ensure that graduates acquire the most appropriate knowledge and abilities upon graduation to meet industry needs. I f the industrial specialty in question requires both analytical depth and practical abilities reflected in the same graduate, then it may become necessary to create a program that would be considered as applied engineering, which blurs the traditional boundary between engineering and engineering technology curricula, capturing the strengths of both curricula. This paper reviews how the motorsports engineering program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis was created with the goal to produce graduates having analytical depth and practical abilities.