Educating Generation Net—Can U.S. Engineering Woo and Win the Competition for Talent?

U.S. engineering education needs to evolve if the country is to maintain its preeminence in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. This paper, building on both national engineering student data and findings from the Academic Pathways Study, conjectures and reports on analyses of what matters to future generations of engineers. The paper compares the current generation of college students, Generation Net, with previous generations, explores motivations and choices along the engineering pathway (pre‐college to the workforce), examines students' knowledge and skills relative to faculty practices, and concludes with three scenarios of engineering education and the workforce, including the consequences of stasis or change.