Disruptive Engineering: Maximizing the Feedback Relationship between Industry 4.0 and the Nigerian Engineering Education Sector

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) continues to drive a fusion of physical, digital and biological technology in ways that are rewriting the norms in engineering practice by introducing new approaches such as Internet of things (IoT) and the Industry 4.0 paradigm, that are poised to also change the educational sector globally. Nigeria is yet to tap into the full potential of the Third Industrial Revolution. The relationship between 4IR and engineering education is considered as a positive feedback loop. 4IR technologies have great potential to enhance the quality of the Nigerian engineering education system, which in turn fosters an improved engineering education sector that is better-equipped to produce sustainable outcomes in Industry 4.0 era. This paper explores the potentials for application of 4IR technologies in improving the Nigerian engineering education delivery system by review  and suggests ways through which the educational system can enhance the potentials of its educands to become competitive professionals in the disruptive-technology engineering era. It was concluded that the feedback relationship which exists between engineering education and Industry 4.0 needs rapt attention of stakeholders in order to address the reality of disruptive technology. Keywords— Industrial revolution, Internet of things, Engineering education, Positive feedback, Disruptive technology