the criteria governing the accreditation processes and procedures. TheEngineers Canada Board of Directors on behalf of the constituent members approves thesecriteria. The criteria are both quantitative and qualitative, and place emphasis on curriculumcontent and the quality of the students, academic staff, support staff and educational facilities.CEAB also uses these same criteria to conduct substantial equivalency evaluations ofengineering programs outside Canada. The criteria have evolved over the years to reflectaddressing such issues as technological advances and the growth of the engineering team in theworkplace. Over the past decade the CEAB has increased the requirements for complementarystudies (soft skills) and moved from a
between technological progress on the one hand, and existinglimitations in educational and socioeconomic resources on the other, a varied number ofvisionary frameworks and strategic plans have been put forth by commissions of theAccreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET)1, the National Academy ofEngineering (NAE)2, and the National Science Foundation (NSF)3. A strong, consistentrecommendation in these reports is the need for engineering graduates to have professionaldevelopment, or “soft” skills. The visions of these reports have particular relevance tobioengineering, a discipline whose explosive international growth is generating abundant careerdevelopment, professional development, and humanitarian development opportunities
for program accreditationvisits. Project Learning Objectives Project Teaching Objectives‚ Gain experience in interpreting technical ‚ Foster discovery, self-teaching, and encourage specifications and selecting sensors and transducers desire and ability for life-long learning for a given application‚ Understand terminologies associated with ‚ Provide experience in designing instrumentation instrumentation systems system based on specifications‚ Gain experience in developing computerized ‚ Develop soft skills including teamwork, open- instrumentation systems for industrial processes
authors are motivated by a belief they have found abetter way to explain the science. Few bother to ferret out and develop interesting reallife adventures and applications. One source of information is the NationalTransportation Safety Board (NTSB) crash reports. It can be challenging to reduce thesecomplex aerospace systems to fundamental concepts for educational use.This material presented here was developed for a new disaster course for engineeringstudents and a disaster based science course for non-technical students. The material isalso suitable to supplement more traditional engineering courses such as: strength ofmaterials, material science, finite element analysis, and machine design. Many ABET socalled "soft skills" can also be
a future leader in business or engineering or technologyor a balance of all for our company? What skills, competencies and attitudes would we look for? Whatmix of soft skills (people, leadership, and team), technology and business process skills would we expect?What about ethics, integrity, communications, diversity and a better understanding and acceptance ofglobal diversity and cultures and being able to tap virtual global brains located anywhere and anytime?What about acceptance of and the proactive sponsorship of innovation, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurshipand managing change? In assessing the market needs for the purpose of re-inventing the contents of thedegree program, we always kept these questions in sight.In general, we also
Beyond Their Technical Capabilities: Providing Student Exposure to Professional, Communication, and Leadership Skills Christopher W. Swan and Julia Carroll Associate Professor and Graduate Student, respectively, Tufts UniversityAbstract Beyond their technical capabilities, future engineers will require strong leadership,communication, and professional skills to navigate an ever-changing field that is increasinglyinfluenced by issues associated with globalization and environmental sustainability. A newcourse on these “soft” skills has been developed at Tufts University. The course, recently taughtto civil and environmental engineering majors, was designed to introduce
, engineering and math (STEM) fields, these changes have led to anincreasing need for building “soft skills” in current and potential employees, essentially bridging the gapbetween technical and business skills. In one area of services, IT Services, there are thousands of jobs inthe market that are left unfulfilled due to the lack of updated qualifications. There is a lack of awarenessof this growing trend for current skills and available job roles, which needs to be addressed, especially byeducational institutions. Of particular concern is the fact that female candidates, who constitute asignificant portion of the potential work force, are not being utilized correctly. It has been argued thatwomen in general possess many characteristics that make them
a future leader in business or engineering or technologyor a balance of all for our company? What skills, competencies and attitudes would we look for? Whatmix of soft skills (people, leadership, and team), technology and business process skills would we expect?What about ethics, integrity, communications, diversity and a better understanding and acceptance ofglobal diversity and cultures and being able to tap virtual global brains located anywhere and anytime?What about acceptance of and the proactive sponsorship of innovation, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurshipand managing change? In assessing the market needs for the purpose of re-inventing the contents of thedegree program, we always kept these questions in sight.In general, we also
, engineering and math (STEM) fields, these changes have led to anincreasing need for building “soft skills” in current and potential employees, essentially bridging the gapbetween technical and business skills. In one area of services, IT Services, there are thousands of jobs inthe market that are left unfulfilled due to the lack of updated qualifications. There is a lack of awarenessof this growing trend for current skills and available job roles, which needs to be addressed, especially byeducational institutions. Of particular concern is the fact that female candidates, who constitute asignificant portion of the potential work force, are not being utilized correctly. It has been argued thatwomen in general possess many characteristics that make them
Beyond Their Technical Capabilities: Providing Student Exposure to Professional, Communication, and Leadership Skills Christopher W. Swan and Julia Carroll Associate Professor and Graduate Student, respectively, Tufts UniversityAbstract Beyond their technical capabilities, future engineers will require strong leadership,communication, and professional skills to navigate an ever-changing field that is increasinglyinfluenced by issues associated with globalization and environmental sustainability. A newcourse on these “soft” skills has been developed at Tufts University. The course, recently taughtto civil and environmental engineering majors, was designed to introduce
, engineering and math (STEM) fields, these changes have led to anincreasing need for building “soft skills” in current and potential employees, essentially bridging the gapbetween technical and business skills. In one area of services, IT Services, there are thousands of jobs inthe market that are left unfulfilled due to the lack of updated qualifications. There is a lack of awarenessof this growing trend for current skills and available job roles, which needs to be addressed, especially byeducational institutions. Of particular concern is the fact that female candidates, who constitute asignificant portion of the potential work force, are not being utilized correctly. It has been argued thatwomen in general possess many characteristics that make them
Beyond Their Technical Capabilities: Providing Student Exposure to Professional, Communication, and Leadership Skills Christopher W. Swan and Julia Carroll Associate Professor and Graduate Student, respectively, Tufts UniversityAbstract Beyond their technical capabilities, future engineers will require strong leadership,communication, and professional skills to navigate an ever-changing field that is increasinglyinfluenced by issues associated with globalization and environmental sustainability. A newcourse on these “soft” skills has been developed at Tufts University. The course, recently taughtto civil and environmental engineering majors, was designed to introduce
enhancement. It involves a unique combination of scholarship,academic support (tutoring, personal and academic guidance, oversight and counseling) andprofessional development. The interpersonal relationship that develops as a result of the additionaloversight provided to these students helps create a feeling of belonging avoiding the sense ofanonymity experienced by many students in large academic settings. The professionaldevelopment component provides a student centered active learning environment in whichparticipation and involvement are key. It also includes an internship experience and variousworkshops. The workshops address the so-called “soft skills” and other relevant issues nottypically part of an IT or engineering curriculum. These
Polytechnic State University. The main broad benefit of themethod was directly including soft skills in the curriculum. Specific benefits of videoconferencing included: exposure to global perspectives, interaction with a senior practitioner inthe classroom, enhanced connection between laboratory experiments and real projects, andaddition of new topics in the laboratory course. Specific benefits of video production included:enhanced learning using unconventional learning styles, increased expectations for teamwork,increased accountability for grading work submitted by a team, and increased attention toexperimental detail. Drawbacks of the method included large time commitment and a significantlearning curve associated with video editing. Simple
engineering economy coursesinclude group problem solving activities,18 using only spreadsheets to solve assignments,19assessing accreditation “soft skills” outcomes,20 and introducing contemporary global issues.21IntroductionDuring most of the last decade Baylor’s ECS programs have responded to the desire for studentsto be globally savvy by developing abroad experiences with an ECS focus.11, 22 This experiencematured into one that includes a partnership with the business school. Because of the high costof this program, both in terms faculty and staff resources and student-program charges, it is notfeasible to offer it for a majority of the students. This fact though, does not negate the desire thatall ECS graduates be equipped with discipline
engaged U.S. workforce ofscientists, engineers, technologists, and well-prepared citizens.” 1-4 As an important measurerequired to meet these challenges, new engineering accreditation criteria, initially known asEngineering Criteria 2000 (EC 2000), have emphasized the necessity of combining the traditionalrequirements of rigorous technical preparation, or so-called “hard” skills, and the development ofprofessional or “soft” skills, including such attributes as communication, ethics, critical thinking,and innovation.5The EC 2000 ABET criteria, now part of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC)criteria, have created many new expectations in terms of enhancing, revising, and remodelingengineering programs. In response to new requirements
importantly, performance in the marketplace is driven by the quality, skills, and flexibilityof labor and management. In addition to traditional “hard” skills and ICT competencies, theknowledge based economies require a new set of “soft” skills, such as spirit of enquiry,adaptability, problem solving, communications skills, self learning, and knowledge discovery,cultural sensitivity, social empathy, and motivation for work. Countries need to developteaching and learning environments that nurture inquiry, adaptability, problem-solving, andcommunication skills. But mastery of these skills is quite low in many countries.The talent shortage is expected to get far more severe in the coming decade. About 80 percent ofthe fastest-growing jobs of the future
have been taught regularly since that time.In 2003, under a grant from Ford Motor Company, some of the courses were moved into asummer “boot-camp” format. This allows the students to take two courses simultaneouslyduring a 4 week intensive summer session. Since no other courses are taken during each session,students are available for involvement throughout the day. This allows multiple plant visits,extensive factory simulation exercises, and team projects. Students indicate that the experienceis very intense but worthwhile. Employers indicate a strong demand for the students,appreciating the students’ mixture of theory and application, and the mixture of both technicalknowledge and soft-skills knowledge (organizational theory, leadership, and
. They also rely onstudent input to help design and improve the curriculum every year. This paper describes theapproach we have taken at the University of Pennsylvania, which integrates selected teaching Page 13.81.3techniques into a cohesive mechanical engineering curriculum aimed at facilitating our students’development into competent, motivated, independent engineers.ProgressionFull curriculum integration has several advantages over labs that are simply tied to individualcourses. The most obvious benefit is the potential for projects to apply integrated concepts thatcross many courses. At the same time, soft skills such as teamwork
participants were asked to organize thepost-its on their respective chalkboards to capture common or emerging themes. Some prevalentthemes are shown in Table 1: Table 1: Select Workshop Notes New hires After first year on job Next few years Specific applications Technological tools Architecture & (domain knowledge) technology skills Problem solving skills Systems knowledge Soft skills (global (critical thinking) issues) Communication skills Self motivated innovation Accountability Knowledge of a Understanding business
design or design-relatedcourse every semester9 with the four courses in the freshman and sophomore years (EngineeringDesign 1 thru 4) being of particular importance to the early development of various “soft skill”threads, including teaming. These first four design courses are core engineering curriculumcourses; later design courses in the sequence are disciplinary, culminating in the two-semester Page 13.399.3capstone design project. In the first four courses the students are assigned by the instructor toteams rather than allowed to choose their team-mates. This produces diversity of interests andskills and as such is reflective of the reality
our innovation training appreciate the value of what they are being taught, and thus aremore attentive and more likely actually to employ some of the ideas in the workplace.The model is also attractive to attendees in that it provides a sense of the careerDuening & Goss 13 March 2008American Society for Engineering Education Pacific Southwest Divisionenhancing potential of the non-technical elements of the training they receive. Mostparticipants that we’ve worked with to date have not received any formal management orleadership training. Thus, many of the “soft skill” concepts they are exposed to as part oftheir formal innovation curriculum may seem
, theseaccounts are not necessarily widely read by engineering academics. Sheppard and hercolleagues concluded that engineering practice consists of problem solving, specializedknowledge and integration of process and knowledge. However, our own research suggeststhat these are significant components of a much greater whole which is difficult, at first, toperceive. Engineers do solve problems, but they also do many other things as well. (Eventhe engineers whom we have interviewed and studied find it difficult to understand theprocess in which they spend their working lives.)Our own research has revealed significant weaknesses in the contemporary understanding ofengineering practice. For example, while learning soft skills such as communication has