The purpose of the research initiative set in 2013 by the team from the Ural Federal University was to monitor the processes of reforming engineering education in the Ural region. The transition of engineering education to new formats of professional socialization of future engineers is carried out during this period. The need for new training models was primarily due to the state of the regional engineering labor market, where quantitative and qualitative shortage of engineering personnel has been emerged. The processes of reindustrialization of the traditional branch structure of industry had to be combined with the processes of new industrialization in the Sverdlovsk region, which is part of the old industrial regional cluster. As a consequence, the contradictions between the traditions of mass training of engineers and the elite training of a new generation of engineering personnel increased in the higher technical education of the region. Large-scale training of personnel for digital economy and Industry 4.0 dictates a new regional agenda and forms new challenges for the Ural engineering school. The paper summarizes the results of the author's research on new formats of engineering education in the Sverdlovsk region. The main tasks of the authors are to assess the continuity of methodological approaches, research strategies and tools used; to identify the dynamics of the institutional environment of modern engineering education; to give a comparative assessment of organizational models and practices of self-determination of Russian and foreign universities concerning those institutional innovations that are associated with Industry 4.0. The comparative analysis of the data provided an opportunity to broaden the understanding of the features, contradictions and prospects of institutionalization of innovative practices in engineering education.