Global Journal of Engineering, Design & Technology
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International Textileengineering Journals

The textile education programs also need to be modified in such a way that dynamic adjustments of these programs can be made in accordance to the industry's developments. Indeed, a significant trade-off must be made between strictly following the ABET criteria and meeting the industry's demands. The ABET criteria are based on the classic approach of engineering education, which leads to calculus being the top of the pyramid of mathematical background. Most of us engineers by education understand that this model, though may be academically useful, did not fully reflect engineering applied needs. Certainly, calculus and differential equations are critical in many research applications, but as Arthur Benjamin, a famous American mathematician, puts it (Ted Talk, 2009), only very few of us use calculus in a conscious and meaningful way in our daily practices. He calls for a change in the mathematical pyramid to make statistics the top of the pyramid. Ironically, even the ABET did not realize the importance of statistics except in the last 30 years. Now, in the era of big data and unsupervised machine learning, there is no doubt that statistics should be the top of the mathematic pyramid.