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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Lance Schachterle

Conference, several deans werenoted using phrases like “spreading the soft skills across the curriculum.” By this they may wellmean that those ABET Criterion 3 requirements dealing with non-technical skills might beembedded within engineering courses. Of the eleven outcomes of Criterion 3 listed below, thesix in italics have traditionally been considered as “soft skills” in engineering education, perhapsbecause students can develop them as well in H/SS or other liberal arts areas as in engineering:Criterion 3. Program Outcomes and AssessmentEngineering programs must demonstrate that their graduates have: (a) an ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data (b) an ability to design a system, component, or

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Anderson; Paul Duesing; Marty Zoerner; Kevin Schmaltz

educational criteria setforth by the Senior Project Faculty Board (SPFB). In the setting suggested here, failure isnot an option, and the student team must deliver1.The authors of this paper have either coordinated and directed student teams, or haveacted as industrial contacts for one or more teams. The guiding philosophy behind ourindustry-based capstone senior design course sequence includes industry origination, abusiness setting and the teaching of non-technical (soft) skills. Industry projects demandreal solutions, as well as provide actual budgets and definite time constraints. To set abusiness tone, we provide all of the teams with a shared office space (cubicles,computers, phones, etc.), fostering a common work environment and sense

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Ronna Turner; Ken Vickers; Greg Salamo

 2001, American Society for Engineering Educationterm milestone events leading to full program startup for the academic year 2001-2002.I. IntroductionThe Physics Department at the University of Arkansas took the broad themes identified as beingneeded in future graduate students and translated them into a set of four specific goals for theFIPSE program implementation. They were: a) Integrating traditional physics education with a business framework b) Integrating traditional physics education with creativity training c) Integrating global perspectives into local technology decisions d) Integrating soft skill set development with traditional physics educationThe University of Arkansas was awarded its Department of

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Leah Jamieson; Edward J. Coyle; William Oakes

paper are the so-called "soft" skills. Instrumentshave been put into place to enable assessment and improvement of the program’s effectiveness infostering development of these skills. The following sections will focus on how EPICS enhancesstudents’ abilities to: function on multidisciplinary teams; communicate effectively; andunderstand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context.Teamwork and LeadershipTeamwork is a cornerstone of the EPICS experience. All students are placed onto teams thatrange in size from eight to twenty students. Team building exercises that are one to two hours induration are administered by teaching assistants during a lab session early in the semester.Because the EPICS teams continue from one

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Michael J Batchelder; Daniel F. Dolan

racing. As an important part of the solar carteam, the instrumentation team not only learns technical skills, but also the soft skills ofplanning, managing, and working with others to reach a common goal.IntroductionFocusing engineering education on projects and competitions is a popular approach togiving students experience with real open-ended design problems, teamwork,communication, and leadership1,2,3,4. ABET requires engineering programs todemonstrate that their graduates have fundamental knowledge and know how to apply itworking in teams. Student teams participating in solar car racing develop not onlytechnical skills, but also communication, project management, and teaming skills. TheCenter for Advanced Manufacturing and Production (CAMP

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Zbigniew Prusak

geometric characteristics of the apparatus and the process are used as variables. Theapparatus is fairly fool proof, so after a brief introduction, very few guidelines for what to do andhow are given to students. However, the students are monitored for progress in accomplishmentof their own goals and how they stand compared to another competing group. The learningprocess includes competition between teams of students who use a given experimentation setup.The problem solving skills targeted in this exercise include approaches traditionally associatedwith engineering such as math and stat-based analysis, optimization and prediction. Since realworld engineering problems are seldom purely technical, the so-called soft skills are alsoaccentuated with

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jamie Workman

Computer Programming Technology and the students learned about searchengines, created web pages, and other activities. Day three had silly science andElectrical Engineering Technology when the students made flubber, learned about electronics,and soldered their own circuit board together. Day four was Biomedical EngineeringTechnology and the students were introduced to, among other things, a defibrillator dummy.Finally, the last day was related to all things mechanical as the students, used hand tools to createtheir own catapult, cast key chains in the foundry lab, and constructed Egg Drop Vehicles.As we are learning, technical expertise is not the only quality necessary for success in the ETprofessions. Other desired “soft skills” include teamwork

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Scott Midkiff

, narrow-focus, lone-researcher model oftraditional Ph.D. programs. The program integrates multiple disciplines through the participationof faculty and students from three colleges and through collaborative multidisciplinary researchprojects. The program also integrates research with education experiences and integratesresearch and technical education with training in “soft skills,” including communications andteamwork. This paper describes the program’s goals and the educational program,implementation strategies to be used to achieve these goals, and the program’s curriculum.I. IntroductionWith a five-year Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training (IGERT) grant awardedby the National Science Foundation (NSF) in August 2000, Virginia

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Richard Schultz; Darryl Sale; Chang-Hee Won; William Semke; Arnold Johnson

American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright  2001, American Society for Engineering Educationteam also introduced the students and faculty to many aspects of group dynamics, a relatively newexperience for the team members.2. Group DynamicsDealing with group dynamics helps students to polish their “soft skills,” which are vitally importantin today’s business world. Soft skills, including oral, written, and interpersonal communications, areoften the most important skills that a person must possess in order to advance one’s career. Workingin large groups as a part of the undergraduate curriculum provides students with a chance to honetheir people skills, which generally occurs only

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Jeffrey A. Donnell

: Graphics Press (1983).2. Booth, W., Colomb, G. & Williams, J. The Craft of Research. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press (1995).3. Alley, M. The Craft of Scientific Writing. New York NY: Springer Verlag (1990).4. Perelman, L., Paradis, J. & Barrett, E. The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield (1998).5. Walker, K. Integrating Writing Instruction into Engineering Courses: A Writing Center Model, Journal of Engineering Education vol. 89, no. 4, pp. 369-375.6. Kincy, C.E., Clausen, E.C. Communication Skills for Chemical Engineers: A Practical Approach to Teaching Soft Skills, Innovations in Engineering Education: Proceedings of the 1996 ABET Annual Meeting. Pp. 186

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Neal Armstrong; Steven Nichols

, American Society for Engineering Education.The Task force also considered the needs of industry as reflected in the membership of theEngineering Foundation Advisory Council and other sources. As an example, the Task forcereferred to Mechanical Engineering in the 21st Century: Trends Impacting the Profession.12The report identified the following "important" skills relevant that EngineeringEntrepreneurship could support:13 Excerpts from Mechanical Engineering in the 21st Centruy Important "Hard" Skills Important "Soft Skills Use of new Materials Effective communication Ability to apply new technology Teamwork Abstract thinking

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Sean DiBartolo; Linfield Brown; Chris Swan

been given to thestudents; thus, the students control both the internal and external aspects of contest participation.In essence, the students are the drivers in Tufts participation in the WERC design contest withthe advisors providing advice, not answers, when asked. By abdicating control, the advisorsbelieve that the students will develop not only better technical skills in research and design of aengineered system but will begin to develop and see the importance of “soft” skills such as time,people, and project management.This hands-off aspect of advising does have its disadvantages. Advisors are many times left “outof the loop”, and often find that students have made critical and/or time-wasting mistakes thatmay have been avoided if

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

David Probst

academically to compete in themodern, global, and communication intensive world of engineering. As such, greater emphasisis being placed on what used to be called the “soft skills.” This increased emphasis is reflectedin the Engineering Criteria 2000 Criteria 3 outcomes. Our University Studies Program clearlyemphasizes these outcomes and prepares our students well for success in the modern world.B. Preparation for the ABET VisitIn preparation for evaluation of our program under Engineering Criteria 2000, we needed todevelop a set of educational objectives and an assessment plan for the Engineering PhysicsProgram. We decided to adopt a set of objectives that would apply to all departmental programs.The objectives along with specific outcomes for

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Kamyar Haghighi; Heidi Diefes-Dux

PO 9 should make serious efforts to improve their communication component. S 9. Form a faculty committee to review freshman, sophomore, and senior PO 7, 8, seminar courses as a cluster. Focus should be on ABE POs that address 11, 12 professional and personal "soft" skills and particularly the ones involving global and societal impact of engineering practice, knowledge of contemporary issues, ethical responsibility in personal and professional life, and life-long learning. Issues related to other support functions and activities (i.e., undergraduate research, Co-op) should also be addressed. Graduation requirement of lower level

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Taggart Smith

of leadership and soft skills inmanagement. Women use cooperative styles and are good at networking, mentoring, and teambuilding—all the signs of a caring organization and an enabling context for knowledge creation.However, caring comes naturally to all human beings. Caring develops mutual trust, empathy,leniency in judgment, access to help, and establishing courage.A key issue for management is to create a “tight-loose” process for competence diffusion.Communities of practice need to be allowed freedom and variation for learning to take place,while requiring enough commonality to make sharing possible. Business units should allowenough autonomy to experiment with new methods of task performance and provideorganizational unity through shared

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Kenneth Halliday; Israel Urieli; Gregory Kremer

/mechanical systems design project was selected tointegrate material from all of the core mechanical engineering courses and to ensure that ourgraduates have a basic understanding of engineering science and how it relates to the art ofengineering design.The purpose of this paper is to describe the key features of the new course and to evaluate itssuccess in meeting its educational objectives. The “soft skills” component of the courseemphasizes development of skills for lifelong learning, including research skills, teamworkskills, and communication skills. The year-long sequence of courses is being team-taught, withextensive use of a Blackboard course web site for organizing group activities, and is beingmonitored by referees from the industrial

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Paul Duesing; Kevin Schmaltz; Dan Goodrich; Pamela Schmaltz

a "cookie cutter" design-and-buildassignment. Both students and faculty learned from the experience, and LSSU and CTIhave continued to team on subsequent senior engineering projects for LSSU’s engineeringstudents.Bibliography1. Duesing, P., Devaprasad, J., Mahajan, A., and McDonald, D., "Integrating Soft Skills: A Key Factor inthe University to Work Transition," ABET Annual Conference Proceedings, Seattle, November 1996.2. McDonald, D., Devaprasad, J., Duesing, P., Mahajan, A., Qatu, M., and Walworth, M., "Re-Engineeringthe Senior Design Experience with Industry-Sponsored Multidisciplinary Team Projects," Frontiers inEducation Conference Proceedings, Salt Lake City, November, 1996.3. Lamoncusa, J., Soyster, A., and George, R., "Industry

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Leslie Crowley; Ray Price; Jonathan R. Dolle; Bruce Litchfield

byfocusing on building effective teams and organizations, mentoring and coaching others, and theimportance of perpetual learning—not just from courses but also from observation andreflection. This paper closes with our future plans for the course and for our continuing efforts tointegrate emotional intelligence into an engineering curriculum. Page 6.431.1I. INTRODUCTION AND RATIONALE FOR THE COURSEEEI was developed in response to a constellation of needs. This constellation is made up of thenow familiar but often vaguely defined group of concepts known as “soft skills.” These skillsare often used interchangeably, or to mean more than one thing

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Spencer Brinkerhoff; III, Walter Hopkins; David Hartman

integrates content from many of the previous engineering courses into ateam-oriented, senior-level design experience. After several years of successful capstone courses,the faculty determined that the senior course could be much more effective if students learned touse some of the so-called “soft” skills earlier in their educational experiences. Subsequently a Page 6.511.1sophomore-level course, Engineering Design: The Process, was developed and offered, followed Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Zbigniew Prusak

decade 1, 2, 3, 4 shed lighton the growing emphasis put by the industry on development of so called ’soft skills’ as a necessarycomponent of skills possessed by successful engineers and technologists. Many examples ofapproaches that evaluate creativity, efficiency and overall output of engineering work are availablefrom academic and business point of view 5, 6, 7, 8 . Newest ABET accreditation standards alsorequire goal-oriented education that strives to define educational objectives for a program, andimplement and evaluate instruments for conveying necessary knowledge. Experimentation andhands-on projects are believed to be one of the best avenues to teach the concepts of the abovementioned core knowledge and skills of present day engineers 9

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Geoffrey Bland; Abhijit Nagchaudhuri

formaleducation efforts that goes on in classroom environment. The format allows students to conductactive research, cultivate leadership and learn cooperatively. It allows integration of "soft skills"as well as "technical skills" to provide a holistic learning environment. The learning outcomesfor the project can be summarized as: • Ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering; • Ability to work in multi-disciplinary teams; • Ability to integrate knowledge from many different fields; • Ability to design a system, component or process to meet desired needs. • Improved skills of utilizing internet technology for information gathering as well as information dissemination. • Exposure to

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2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Otto Loewer; Ken Vickers; John Ahlen; Greg Salamo

; (iii) increase inthe number of start-ups in Genesis; (iv) number of new innovative products reaching the marketdue to I2 partnership; (v) establishment of an “innovation” culture with students and faculty; (vi)identification of problems suitable for student research theses; (vii) improvement in studentcreativity and related soft-skills, and (viii) demonstrations of the difference the universityenterprise can have on the state economic well being.Assessment of the program effectiveness will focus on these eight features and will be based onquantitative objective measures and by perceptional assessments by students, faculty, smallbusinesses, and student employers. Some quantitative objective measures are easily assessed. For

Collection

2001 Annual Conference

Authors

Robert Tener; Michael Winstead; Edward Smaglik

internshipsalmost universally enable students to develop their self-efficacy beliefs, as can be shown.Employers of engineering graduates today look for a set of skills, the so-called “soft skills," that are usuallywell-developed during construction internship assignments. These include oral communication, written Page 6.486.12 Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright @2001, American Society for Engineering Educationcommunication, critical thinking skills, leadership, and an overall sense of the “big picture.” Appropriatebehavior traits such as