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Implementing A Societal Context, An Appreciation for Life-Long Learning, and Contemporary Issues into an Engineering Management Course Abstract

As the University of Pittsburgh Department of Industrial Engineering prepared for its ABET visit in the fall 2005, it became apparent that its IE 1035 – Engineering Management course was a primary course for satisfying ABET outcomes (h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context; (i) a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning; and (j) a knowledge of contemporary issues. This paper will describe pedagogically how these elements are implemented within the IE 1035 – Engineering Management course and the other inherent benefits of doing so, i.e., making learning rigorous, relevant, and interesting.

1. Introduction

The Industrial Engineering Department at the University of Pittsburgh is not unlike most other traditional industrial engineering programs across the country. Our program begins at the sophomore year after students have completed a common freshman year. Upon joining the Industrial Engineering Department, students complete additional math courses, engineering science courses, required Industrial Engineering courses, technical electives, a set of six humanities and social science electives, and even a course in cost (managerial) accounting. Our program is designed to provide students with a breadth of subject matter within Industrial Engineering in the major core areas including probability & statistics, operations research, engineering management, human factors, manufacturing & facility design, and production operations analysis.7, 8 The technical electives permit students to concentrate in a particular area of interest such as operations research or engineering management or to fulfill this requirement with a breadth of courses.

As the University of Pittsburgh Department of Industrial Engineering prepared for its ABET visit in the fall 2005, it became apparent that its IE 1035 – Engineering Management course was a primary course for satisfying ABET outcomes (h) the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context; (i) a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning; and (j) a knowledge of contemporary issues.4 IE 1035 is a semester-long, 3-credit, required course for Industrial Engineers taken in their senior year. Specifically this course discusses modern engineering management theory as it applies to technical organizations. Topics include: the management process; project management; managing technical people; communications; managing technological change; labor relations; and engineering ethics. Babcock and Morse's Managing Engineering and Technology, Third Edition1 is the primary textbook with supplemental reading primarily from the Harvard Business Review. IE 1035 has gained recent popularity within other engineering majors and students from departments such as Mechanical Engineering, Bio Engineering, and Electrical Engineering take this course to fulfill a technical elective requirement citing their interests in project management, engineering management in

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Needy, K. (2006, June), Implementing A Societal Context, An Appreciation For Life Long Learning, And Contemporary Issues Into An Engineering Management Course Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--376