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Session 2354

21st Century Engineer-Entrepreneur

Vijay K. Arora†, Lorenzo Faraone The University of Western Australia

Abstract

The emerging facts from the successful organizations, including universities, indicate that the real source of power in a knowledge-based economy is in combining technical prowess with entrepreneurship. This paper first highlights missing links in the aptitude and attitude of an engineer in combining technical knowledge with sound decision-making and effective entrepreneurship. Second, it discusses the gaps in traditional college education and their remedies through outcome-based curricula. Third, it presents the distinction between leadership and management with reference to new models espoused in the Theory of Constraints (TOC). Fourth, it outlines the skills needed for the professional development of an individual to transform him or her from a traditional quantitative/verbal thinker to a future-oriented visionary by redirecting the whole-brain thinking. Finally, critical success factors in the development of an effective and efficient knowledge worker for the 21st century are enumerated.

I. Introduction

Change is in the air for all organizations from seeking training to seeking wisdom.1 The change is the only constant that traditions do not survive. Organizations are now discovering transformed rules and responses to the realities of the competitive marketplace. A university, like any other organization refusing to respond to the needs of the dynamic world in a timely manner, can become a beautiful higher education museum if its brain bank does not respond in ways that match the creative far-sighted vision of global leaders. New knowledge, new opportunities, new technologies to serve our teaching and administration, new industrial/business partners in research and innovation, and new institutional structures in advancing our mission are required in the new economy. These elements can make dramatically a new engineering school responsive to the needs of the twenty-first century workplace, while securing core goals and virtues in a hierarchical socio-economic system.

Strategic planning is now becoming a norm to reap the benefits of advancing technologies and innovations. Those organizations that resort to reactive planning—only when trouble appears at

Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright©2001, American Society for Engineering Education

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Arora, V., & Faraone, L. (2001, June), 21st Century Engineer Entrepreneur Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--8873