到底材料科學工程（MS&E，以下簡稱材料工程）對工程教育有何等的衝擊？針對此問題吾人從歷史背景、工業界需求、以及更精緻的角度來看，尤其從近十幾年來材料工程的新觀念和新視野來探討以微觀世界為出發點，原子構造為基礎與嚴謹的物理、化學、甚至生物科技相銜接爲一體的新課程在工業教育上所應扮演的角色。
值此台灣工業從昨日的人工密集經濟蛻變爲明日的「亞太高科技中心」的過渡時期，材料工程應該在台灣的工程教育上扮演更主導的角色。本文主張材料工程相關的基礎課程應該全面推行爲工學院各學系必修或必選的課程。過去二十年來材料工程曾扮演了中間者立場在科學工程和工業之間畫了穿針引線的作用。雖然近幾十年來工業界對材料人才的需求年年增加，台灣的工程教育界並未能認真反映同步的重視。本文特別強調如何在供應不平衡的情況下積極促使材料工程在長期或短程策略下，從課程內容的改進有到教學品質的提昇等問題提出一些可行的辦法。
The issue on how should the Materials Science and Engineering (MS&E) impact the engineering education is looked at from the historical background, the industrial demand, and more subtly from its new scope-a microscopic world, an atomistic foundation, and its broad interactions with the world of physics, chemistry and even the world of biotechnology. At this transitional stage of transforming Taiwan's industry from a labor intensive economy of yesterday into a technology oriented Asia-Pacific High Tech Center of tomorrow, the MS&E should play a dominant role in engineering education. It is proposed that some basic and new courses in MS&E should be enforced or implemented in the engineering curriculum. MS&E has played a role in bridging science, technology and industry together. The industrial demand in Taiwan for human resources with MS&E major has been increasing, yet in engineering education it has not kept up with the pace. This paper considers both a long range approach and a short term strategy of balancing human resources in terms of course design and teaching quality.
