Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Approaches for Enhancing Non-technical Skills

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Alistar Erickson-Ludwig, Drexel University ; Rosie Sullivan, Drexel University

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

hours of technical coursework leaving little roomto add new courses, especially those that integrate soft skills.1 The workforce demands technicalskills, and the changing work environment and competitive global market also drives demand forteamwork, ethics, problem solving, and communication within the engineering curriculum.1Previous research2 detailed competence in college graduates and the demands of the workplace,but also noted that a skills gap is present between the technical training and experience ofstudents and the responsibilities of the job. Although other researchers3 reported employersatisfaction with employee skills, it is likely that there is still room to improve upon the skillsstudents acquire in their higher education programs

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Course Development

Collection

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Richey, The Boeing Company; Fabian Zender, The Boeing Company; Charles J Camarda, NASA

Tagged Topics

Diversity

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

tocollaborate across space and time in an environment with non-optimal data availability requiringthem to make decisions that fall outside the narrowly prescribed theoretical scenariosencountered in school. 9 In addition the dialogue between universities and industry has not yetyielded a balance between the academic foundational requirements and industry requiredapplication to real world problems. The skills gap is constituted of lacks in both “hard” and“soft” skills. 11,12In this paper the focus is on identifying opportunities to further develop these professional(“soft”) skills required by small and large companies alike. Almost all graduates in (STEM)fields will have interactions in a social web comprised of colleagues, suppliers, and