Collection

2020 Gulf Southwest Section Conference

Authors

Kenneth Van Treuren

, ready or not,here comes iGen and the faculty must be prepared to face them. Industry PerspectiveiGens do not seem prepared for what they will face in industry. Industry tells us new hireengineering students lack the social and soft skills to be successful.10 Technology has become animpediment to developing interpersonal relationships and people skills. iGens would rathercommunicate through technology than in person, a frustration to industry managers, especially whenthe communication concerns conflict. A KRONOS Workforce Institute study discovered that 40%of iGens say their high school or college prepared them for the work place however, they admit thatthey were never taught how to negotiate, public speak

Collection

2020 Gulf Southwest Section Conference

Authors

John Carrell; Joshua Cruz; Stephanie Kuzmack

, providing soft skills through application of the humanities. Our paperfocuses on the development of empathy, one soft skill. Specifically, discourse analysis was used toexamine course assignments that ask students to reverse engineer technical dilemmas from WorldWar II. In some instances, students were asked simply to reverse engineer; in others, they wereasked to consider broader, contextual, humanitarian concerns during WWII. Results showdevelopment in empathetic language, such as emotionally evocative terms, attention to societalaspirations, and human-centric focus over more abstract problem-solution oriented thinking. Webelieve this illustrates a definite link between empathy development and technical problem-solving