The future trend of the electronics engineering technology programs over the next decade

Presently, the dynamic nature of the electronic industry is posing challenges to electronics engineering technology (EET) programs to keep pace with the explosive and disruptive changes in the electronics field. The urgency to establish new directions for ET education becomes more critical each day as industry and society processes become more mediated by electronics devices and systems. During the past century electronics has evolved from the basic methodology of electrical signal modification, transmission, and re-conversion for useful human sensory perception to a mediating technology that is at the core of most human activity. The fuzzy disciplinary boundaries, the ubiquitous and covert nature of electronics technology's influence on human processes create great difficulty for EET educators in identifying the future directions of the program of study. Today, these boundaries are dissolving rapidly and therefore confusion is rampant in the ability of educators to layout sustainable EET curriculum directions that confidently address the future workforce needs of industry and society. The focus of this paper is to illustrate the whole process of road mapping to create new program focus areas in the field of electronics and closely related fields that yield employment to our graduates into the new emerging technological disciplines.