New national blueprint for embedding data-centric engineering skills in higher education

Data-centric engineering and AI skills for engineers examines how data-centric engineering skills are being integrated into engineering programmes across UK higher education, as well as how they can be strengthened and scaled to meet future demand, and offers new curriculum guidance for engineering education across the country

Data-centric engineering is emerging as a new discipline that fuses the fundamentals of science and social science with data to explain ever more complex engineering products, systems and processes. Alongside this, machine learning and artificial intelligence have become powerful tools to manipulate, analyse and interpret large datasets. 

In this new paradigm, industries across the board in sectors including manufacturing, infrastructure, transport, and energy need engineers with a new suite of knowledge, skills and behaviours to work effectively and confidently with data-intensive systems and help boost the UK’s national resilience.

The report demonstrates that engineering education must evolve if the UK is to remain globally competitive and support future innovation, resilience, and sustainability goals. It identifies fifty learning outcomes across seven thematic areas:

• Foundational statistics
• Advanced Statistics
• Data engineering and management
• Data analytics
• Data governance
• Machine learning and AI for data analytics
• Additional AI skills for engineering

Drawing on curriculum analysis, stakeholder engagement, and strategic mapping, the study identifies existing strengths as well as gaps and opportunities to improve the application of data in engineering practices. Findings from interviews with academics at leading UK institutions, demonstrating a shared view that data-centric engineering should be built into engineering courses as a core skill and as a standard component of engineering degrees.

The report recommends establishing a national baseline of data-centric engineering competencies for all engineering graduates, while allowing opportunities for more advanced specialist pathways. It also calls for more practice-based teaching through laboratories, projects, alongside expanded professional development opportunities for academic staff.

Additional recommendations include aligning accreditation standards with data-centric engineering expectations, and developing communities of practice to support emerging challenges linked to AI.

While focused on the UK higher education system, the report is also intended to support broader international discussions around engineering education, digital transformation, and future workforce capability.

The need for a more data and digitally fluent engineering workforce was a key finding of the National Engineering Policy Centre’s Engineers 2030 report, which contributed to the establishment of the Academy’s new Skills Centre. Many engineers cannot upskill at the pace required to keep up with rapid technological change, while employers struggle to recruit people with the right mix of skills. ​These shortages are particularly acute in areas critical to the UK’s strategic priorities, including digital transformation and the transition to net zero.

Dr Rhys Morgan, Director of Education and Skills at the Royal Academy of Engineering and co-author of today’s report, said: “Data is now a crucial commodity for engineering businesses, but we are seeing that engineers and technicians do not yet have the right skills to take full advantage of the improved engineering outcomes that data can provide across the whole engineering lifecycle. This report, Data-centric engineering and AI skills for engineers is the first output from the Academy’s new Skills Centre and its Skills Observatory, the purpose of which is to provide insight on future skills for engineers and technicians working in a world of increasingly interconnected and complex systems and rapidly emerging new technology.” 

Professor Adam Sobey, Mission Director of Sustainability at the Alan Turing Institute, said: “Data engineering is now a fundamental part of engineering practice in the twenty-first century. That’s why this nationwide initiative to map how it's being taught across the country is so important. This report provides crucial evidence for how data-centric engineering can be better embedded across higher education, while also offering a practical framework to support wider international discussions about the engineering skills that graduates will need in the future”.

Tim Slingsby, Director of Skills and Education at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, said: “The application of big data principles in the engineering sector has potential to deliver huge benefits to society. By providing evidence on how these principles are applied in the national engineering curricula, and identifying where improvements can be made, this report marks a big step in understanding and managing the new risks to safety introduced by digital and AI-enabled technologies.”