A Successful Approach to Educating Engineering Leaders at the Graduate Level (original) (raw)

Developing Engineering Leaders for the 21st Century

2018 World Engineering Education Forum - Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF-GEDC), 2018

In today’s fast pace and change-driven environment, it has become ever more critical for organizations to recognize that many of their engineers - at some point in their careers - will have to take over leadership roles. Engineers are no longer only involved with the technical project details but must also understand the broader picture as they are often acting as team leaders and are expected to improve the lives of others and help society. Their organizations understand there is a need to educate engineers not just in physics and mathematics, but also in many nontechnical areas - including leadership. This paper describes the Engineering Leadership Program at Beihang University in China, which is aligned with world-class initiatives such as the Gordon Institute of Engineering Leadership programs at MIT and Northeastern University in the United States. The paper describes the motivation to establish the program, student learning outcomes and the elements, courses and learning activ...

Leadership Education for Engineers: Engineering Schools Interest and Practice

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

holds the Honeywell Chair in Global Technology Management in the School of Engineering at the University of St. Thomas, after having served as the Founding Dean. He holds a Ph.D. in metallurgical engineering and an M.B.A. With a background of more than 20 years in industry, Bennett teaches and publishes on diverse topics including materials engineering, technical innovation, technology transfer, manufacturing, leadership, and engineering education. He is an EAC of ABET Commissioner for SME and leads the SME Center for Education.

“The Engineer as Leader” Course Design and Assessment

2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition Proceedings

Zulma Toro-Ramos serves as Dean of the College of Engineering and Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Wichita State University. She received a B.S. in Industrial Engineering from the University of Puerto Rico and a M.S. in Industrial and Operations Engineering in from the University of Michigan. She also holds a Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology. Dr. Toro-Ramos has been in academic administration for over sixteen years. Her research interests include engineering education, broadening theparticipation in higher education and transformation of institutions of higher education.

The Engineer as Leader: Course Design

jee.asee.org

Engineers must possess leadership skills even as new graduates. These skills can distinguish graduates from one institution and another. The Industrial Advisory Board of the Wichita State University (WSU) College of Engineering has committed to direct ...

Ac 2012-3593: Leadership Education for Engineers: Engi- Neering Schools Interest and Practice

2012

Leadership has long been a hot topic in business and education, but until recently has not been a focus in science and engineering. Based on our experience in expanding the curriculum to incorporate a series of leadership courses for graduate engineering students, we were interested in knowing whether others were teaching leadership in their programs. We wanted access to information on other engineering programs that was not available in the literature, which led to developing a survey to gather this data. Our motivation for this research was based on experience as authors from industry. We noticed that academia was sub-optimizing the potential of engineers to fully exercise their knowledge, skill and other leadership capabilities in the workplace. This paper presents the motivation for our research, the process we used to gather the data, and assessment and evaluation of the responses. Examples of the current practice of providing leadership education to engineers are described and...

Developing leadership skills through student-led initiatives: Student Platform for Engineering Education Development

2010

Student-coordinated initiatives provide a mechanism for engineering students to develop leadership and interpersonal skills. The formalised structure of university engineering degree programs results in an often prescriptive approach to learning, with few genuine opportunities for students to lead real-world projects. The Student Platform for Engineering Education Development (SPEED) is an international, non-profit organisation that empowers and enables students to stimulate change in their local communities through the development of "Action Plans", diverse projects created, developed and run by motivated students. This paper details some notable Action Plans, both successful projects and those that failed to gain traction; it also outlines how these projects have been effective in the development of student skills. Furthermore it demonstrates how the SPEED-model of student-led local projects can be used to enhance leadership development in universities globally. Action Plans are developed during SPEED"s Global Student Forums, international workshops held in conjunction with other high-level engineering education gatherings. One of the organisation"s core aims is to develop the skills of participating members, with a keen focus on the environmental and societal impact of the profession. These collaborative events include discussions and idea-sharing in addition to developing specific Action Plans with a diverse group of student activists and academics. Furthermore, through insight into policy, academia/industry relations and organisational structure, SPEED serves to continue the professional education of its members and participants of its forums. With these projects representing a rare development opportunity, SPEED has become a unique organisation for globally-minded, motivated students to work with other ambitious individuals for the betterment of the profession.

Infusing Leadership Education in the Undergraduate Engineering Experience: A Framework from UCF's eli 2

Journal of Leadership Studies, 2014

Many institutions are attempting to infuse leadership into the engineering curriculum. Graham, Crawley, and Mendelsohn (2009) provided an overview and review of engineering leadership-related institutes and eff orts. Table 1 (abstracted from Graham, Crawley, & Mendelsohn, 2009) highlights the current key elements for engineering leadership institutes. Further examples of methods to use can be found in institutes beyond the Graham et al. (2009) study. Graham et al. also provide an initial list of engineering leadership institutes. Th e intent of the current article is to not provide an indepth review of each of these institutes but rather to identify the institutes that are examples. From the benchmarks, three conclusions are drawn. First, the current leadership institutes have an explicit focus or mission. For example, the current institutes are focusing on one or more topics such as entrepreneurship, innovation, or leadership. Second, the current institutes diff er in the student populations being served. For example, the institute may provide a service to all students or to a subset of interested students. Th ird, the current institutes provide a method to help students distinguish themselves to employers. For example, an

Engineering Leadership Education: The Search for Definition and a Curricular Approach

While industry and academia agree that leadership skills are critical for engineering graduates, there exists no consensus regarding the definition of "engineering leadership". The engineering leadership development program at Penn State University has a decade-long experience in teaching leadership to engineering undergraduates. In response to faculty review in 2005 changes were made to the existing curriculum within the framework of literature benchmarking and faculty perspectives on engineering leadership as pedagogy. Educational objectives and outcomes were defined and courses enhanced or created to satisfy these needs. The most significant changes to the curriculum were in the area of global leadership.

LEADing The Way: A Review of Engineering Leadership Development Programs

This paper is based on the results of a national survey of ASEE Engineering Leadership Development Division (LEAD) members to compare and contrast the innovative components that have been implemented within various engineering leadership development programs. Data were collected from participants (University Faculty) from 30 North American, African, and European Universities. The following components were examined: cross-cultural education, team-based applied projects, mentorship, and corporate sponsorship. The main objective of this paper is to examine these components, identify innovative practices, and promote the importance and growth of engineering leadership education. Through presenting our preliminary findings, we hope to encourage other programs to participate in the survey so that we can obtain a more comprehensive picture of engineering leadership development practices.