Forensic engineering education reform

Abstract

Forensic engineering is a critical and unique discipline in the engineering field. However, courses on forensic engineering are not widely offered and a complete forensic engineering curriculum is almost non-existent in the USA. Most existing forensic engineering courses are offered in a failure analysis studio format, where investigation techniques are taught, or as part of a forensic practice lecture series where information about case studies is disseminated along with discussions on ethics and jurisprudential issues. Conventional wisdom suggests that due to the specialised nature of forensic engineering it should be offered in a postgraduate curriculum. However, citing lessons learned from other forensic-related disciplines, this paper recommends that forensic engineering develop a broader base that includes system engineering, inverse problem-solving and research methodology, and should be better integrated into a college curriculum that can include both graduate and undergraduate studies.