Paper ID #22207Integrating Soft Skill Development into a Manufacturing Systems CourseDr. Faisal Aqlan, Penn State Behrend Faisal Aqlan is an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering at Penn State Behrend. He earned Ph.D. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2013. Dr. Aqlan is a certified Lean Silver and Six Sigma Black Belt. He is a senior member of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and currently serves as the president of IISE Logistics and Supply Chain division. He is the Principal Investigator and Director of the NSF RET Site in
students. Alex’s plans upon graduation involve becoming a professor or lecturer, specifically at a primarily undergraduate institution. c American Society for Engineering Education, 2018 Soft Skills Boot Camp: Designing a Three-Day Student-Run Seminar and Workshop Series for Graduate StudentsAbstractA common challenge amongst the graduate student population is finding time to work ondesirable soft skills that would create a more dynamic applicant for academic and industrial jobs.Between lectures, classes, research, and duties required for assistantships or fellowships,graduate students have little time left over to attend workshops or seminars to cultivate theseproficiencies. This has been a
,andtocompeteforchallengingprofessionalrolesandprojects.Penn State Center for Engineering Outreach and Inclusion has engaged over 200undergraduates with 15 different sponsors utilizing this powerful model. EMIX internsdistinguish themselves in the engineering workplace as confident, competitiveprofessionals empowered by soft skills that strategically complement academicpreparation. EMIX intern cohorts are overwhelmingly characterized as superior, topperformers.Internsexcelintechnicalinternshipsandcompetitivelypopulatethesponsorworkforcewithdiversetechnicaltalentmorelikelytoexcel,toadvance,andtoberetained.This paper will describe essential exportable elements in the successful Penn State EMIXmodel including practitioner timeline, sponsorship development, intern search, applicantscreening
teaching others the skills they have learned, and the beliefthat they have deeper grasp with the fundamentals of engineering and problem solving.ResultsPreliminary data has been gathered for the beginning of the semester survey as well as the mid-yearsurvey. Currently two surveys regarding the opinions and attitude changes of students have beenadministered, where a self-reflection on given questions was answered. The provided questions were splitinto two categories: a technical skills section and a soft skills section. The technical skills sectionconsisted of five questions asking the students’ opinions regarding their own proficiency in soldering,multimeter and power/hand tool usage, circuit diagnosis and device repair. The other category
successful career in journalism and mar- keting, Graham launched Bigger Pie Strategies, a marketing company formed in 2010, and co-founded Serious Soft Skills, an education and training company, in 2017.Dr. Tobin Porterfield, Towson University Dr. Tobin Porterfield is an active business educator and researcher. While he has an extensive profes- sional career in supply chain management, in 2007 he earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Logistics from the R.H. Smith School at the University of Maryland. Since earning his Ph.D. he has focused on teaching and research. He has taught around the world and presented his research at regional, national, and global conferences. His work has been published in journals including Team
in their own section(s) anddivide the classes up into student groups of 4-5 students. Our instructional team consistscompletely of teaching professionals (non-tenure track faculty) with a variety of backgroundsand industry experience. In order to make mentoring 10 to 20 teams tractable, all students teamscomplete the same design challenge. Creating a “good” design challenge is crucial, as the coursedoes more than simply teach the design process (see Figure 1). Teaming and leadership skills,project management, ethics, and technical communication are important outcomes for the course.All of these “Soft-skill” areas are made more palatable to our students if our design challenge isengaging and fun.With eleven different engineering disciplines
qualitative interviews with industrypractitioners’ and college students. The list of skill indicators were then validated with literaturereviews and grouped into 4 factors: Soft skills, Technical skills, and Experience and Managerialskills. The skills and groupings were presented for industry practitioner feedback at a researchsymposium prior to conducting the quantitative approach of this study. A survey was developedand tested with a pilot group of industry practitioners. The survey was improved in alignmentwith the feedback received during the pilot study and deployed for data collection. Eachidentified skill indicator was presented with a Likert scale, for industry feedback on theperceived importance in STEM related industries. The mean value was
], expanding diversity [5], gainingexperience with industry [6] and even to incorporate service learning into engineering curricula[7]. Mini projects have been implemented in the past for various ends, including ABETassessment [8]. Largely, these courses help to teach the many “soft skills” that students will needin their professional careers.However, there is an additional set of soft skills that students need to succeed in these capstonecourses. To that end, our electrical engineering department has added a senior-level course priorto the capstone course. While such a course shares the learning outcomes with the final seniordesign capstone, this course specifically aims to develop soft skills of working with off-the-shelftechnology so that in the
Project Management Institute (PMI). Dr. Parris is actively involved in curriculum design, introduction of innovative pedagogies of engagement and the practice of engineering education through teaching several courses across the department. He is integrally involved in the design and delivery of the Pre-Freshman and Cooperative Education Program and others of that ilk at OSU, as a part of his specific interest in soft skill development, diversity, recruitment and retention initiatives.Dr. Krista M Kecskemety, Ohio State University Krista Kecskemety is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Engineering Education at The Ohio State University. Krista received her B.S. in Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio
a Masters degreein Data Science in 2014. This is a two-year program covering courses in rigorous Math andprogramming, as well as courses entailing soft skills such as visual storytelling and consultingskills.One of the challenges for faculty on the admission committee in the past few years has beenselecting the best criteria for student admission. Typically, in engineering disciplines theadmission decision is based on students’ performance on courses such as calculus, physics andpre-engineering topics [1]. However, due to the nature of Data Science field the applicants comefrom very diverse undergraduate programs. For instance, some of our top graduating students hadan undergraduate degree in Creative Writing or Healthcare. We have
-dimensional,four-science survey also measures development in 23 soft skills and social emotionalperceptions. DISC comprises four behaviors: Dominance, Influencing, Steadiness, andCompliance. The six Indigo Assessment Motivators are Theoretical, Utilitarian, Aesthetic,Social, Individualistic and Traditional. Some observations from the 2015 data includeindications that the program attracts and develops high potential entrepreneurs, that theseengineering students are particularly high Theoreticals (passion for learning), and aregenerally well-rounded and varied in terms of behavior styles and motivations. In 2017,the same set of students (now seniors) has been re-assessed as part of the ongoing DU andIndigo partnership.Comparing these data sets, along
audience that may not be peers or colleagues.References:[1] I. Direito, A. Pereira, and A. M. de Oliveira Duarte, “Engineering Undergraduates’ Perceptions of Soft Skills: Relations with Self-Efficacy and Learning Styles,” Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences, vol. 55, pp. 843–851, Oct. 2012. [2] M. M. Robles, “Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today’s Workplace,” Business Communication Quarterly, vol. 75.4, pp. 453–465, Oct. 2012.[3] J. C. Bean, “How Writing is Related to Critical Thinking,” in Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom, Ed. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2011, pp. 17-38.[4] D. Murray, “Teach
Paper ID #22509Graduate Student Self and Adviser Ratings on Professional CompetenciesMr. Bret Austin Arnold, University of Tulsa Bret is a doctoral student of Industrial and Organizational Psychology at the University of Tulsa. His re- cent projects concern how personality shapes team-related behaviors and the degree to which antecedents of workplace burnout differ across cultures. Most recently, Bret has joined the University of Tulsa’s cross-disciplinary STEM ProDev team. The team has recently designed and piloted a training program that develops the professional soft-skills of graduate engineering students.Alison
to effective teamwork.References 1. Ritter, Barbara A., Erika E. Small, John W. Mortimer, and Jessica L. Doll. "Designing Management Curriculum for Workplace Readiness: Developing Students’ Soft Skills." Journal of Management Education 42.1 (2017): 80-103. 2. ABET. "Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2018 – 2019." Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, 2018 – 2019 | ABET. N.p., Apr. 2017. Web. 05 Feb. 2018. 3. Loignon, Andrew C., David J. Woehr, Jane S. Thomas, Misty L. Loughry, Matthew W. Ohland, and Daniel M. Ferguson. "Facilitating Peer Evaluation in Team Contexts: The Impact of Frame-of-Reference Rater Training." Academy of Management Learning & Education 16.4 (2016
security-relatedproblems. For example, the current/voltage of a RC circuit could be applied from the perspectiveof a power side-channel attack.The course can further be used to develop and evaluate soft skills and the students’ ability toapply engineering knowledge to culturally relevant topics. Presentations, in-class discussions, andwritten reports prepare students for the workplace where both soft and technical skills arerequired. Additionally, as discussions of ethics are integral to a course in security, the course alsoinvolves professional and ethical responsibilities. The combination of soft skills and ethicalconsideration included in the course give faculty a foundation to do ABET assessment to go alongwith the technical concepts.In this
]. Evaluation procedures wereformulated that allow for the measurement of technical and soft skills in students. Different metrics wereestablished for the following four student content categories: 1) technical content; 2) soft skills; 3)course/project management and 4) team dynamics. Technical content and management categories focusedon student deliverables whereas, team dynamics were the internal relationships within the team. Thegeneral timeline for when different assignments and assessments were deployed throughout the academicsyear is shown in Figure 1. Figure 1: Schematic Timeline of, Student Work, Assessments, and Faculty Interactions.To evaluate the technical and soft skill assignments, nine different metrics used which were provided to
invoice, and perhaps a post-it note with apassword scribbled on it. This password could be used to unlock an encrypted evidentiary file onthe laptop. Email and Skype logs could contain evidence, etc. To facilitate the student teams,training from the California Department of Justice was repurposed to use open-source andfreeware tools and hosted on the web prior to the competition. Additionally, practice forensicsexercises were provided online, as well as instructional videos.Development of the Digital Forensics Challenge (DFC)There were a number of stages necessary to successfully create such a digital forensicscompetition as the California Cyber Innovation Challenge to ensure the inclusion of bothtechnical and soft skills and a realistic digital
. The teaching component involved development and delivery of a course on EmbeddedSystems for engineering students. The guest lectures involved presenting topics on how toincorporate “soft skills” into the curriculum to address industry needs. Through this effort,Electrical Engineering (EE) and Electrical Engineering Technology (EET) faculty in the hostcountry learned new skills that will ultimately impact students in EE and EET throughout thecountry through a continuously updated curriculum. In turn, these graduating students will bebetter prepared for the workforce by learning current skills needed by industry. An engineeringeducation research phase sought to identify the reasons, challenges, and motivations forconsidering engineering as
figures indicate the heavily theoretical Vietnameseeducation system. In contrast, there are not many contests or playgrounds for students to applythe theory to real life as well as developing the soft skills such as public speaking, team working,or communication skills, which engineers mostly need. Not until 2002 was there an internationalcontest named Robocon to invigorate the interest in robot design for teenagers in Asia;nevertheless, this contest focused mainly on college and university students rather than on highschool students. Fortunately, in 2012 the SRobot contest was introduced to this promisingsegment besides the original higher education students. The SRobot Program In 2003, The Saigon
successful career in journalism and marketing, Graham launched Bigger Pie Strategies, a marketing company formed in 2010, and co-founded Serious Soft Skills LLC, an education and training company, in 2017.Dr. Pamela H. Sheff, Johns Hopkins University Pam Sheff is the Director of the Center for Leadership Education and the Master of Science in Engineering Management Program at Johns Hopkins University. Prior to returning to academia, Dr. Sheff built Sheff and Lano Communications, a marketing and communications consulting firm, specializing in developing public and in-house communications for corporate, institutional and government clients. A.M. Harvard University Ph.D. Harvard UniversityEvelyn Carolina Torres-Alfaro, Johns
from this class is that soft skills are a very important part of your success and you need to develop them. There is always room for improvement in soft skills…from this course, I have learned about corporate culture, personal growth, professional responsibilities, useful project management techniques, and property rights. I have already begun using the project management knowledge for my design team. From this course, I realized that culture awareness is very important. I never realized how important it is in the field of engineering until going through this course. This course also made me realized that much of the skills needed to be great engineers could only be gained with experiences
mechanicalengineering. In addition to learning about jobs and careers, students also indicated a newfoundappreciation for lifelong learning and the importance of soft-skills. This positive feedback pointsto success in achieving the course objectives. Each institution took a different approach;however, both have the same goal: to prepare mechanical engineering students for a productiveand enjoyable career.References[1] J. Selingo, “Reimagining the Career Center,” Entangled Solutions, July 2017.[2] V. Goodrich, L. McWilliams, and C. Pieronek, “Implementation and Assessment of RequiredEngineering Exploration Assignments in a First-Year Engineering Course,” Proceedings of the2015 American Society of Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exhibition, Seattle
’ social skills [5]. In addition, research shows that project definition and selection,development of a team vision, establishing strong communication links, and investment in long-term relationships lead to effective collaboration [6].The benefits of a successful academic-industry collaboration are abundant. These include buildinglong-lasting relationships, sharing expertise, and leveraging resources [7]. In addition, there arebenefits to each individual participant including soft skill development, experience with newtechnologies, and exposure to industry [8]. On the other hand, there are challenges and barriers toeffective collaboration. These are documented in literature as lack of trust, issues related tointellectual property rights, time
weaker than non-engineering peers. They cited experiences of being told they were anti-social or notunderstanding societal and cultural norms, which negatively affected them in the clinic. Thestudents made suggestions for engineering and clinical integration in core classes such asPhysiology and Histology and Physical Diagnosis, since those courses were most conducive tointroducing engineering concepts.In the interviews with faculty members and clinicians, we covered three general topics: learning,communication and professional skills, and curricular changes. There was a consensus thatengineers learn by doing, break down problems, and are good with analytical solutions, whilethey tend to have a lack of basic biology background. In terms of soft
©2018 American Society for Engineering Education Session CEED 432Conclusion of Eurotech• Eurotech prepares students for the global workforce and improves their intercultural communication and soft skills to compete in tomorrow’s world• Students get in-depth language and cultural exposure during the first semester and real time hands-on experiences in the workforce, as they apply for real co-op openings (no pre-arranged contracts where students risk being under-challenged “making coffee”, etc.)• After meeting excellent role models during their co-op experience, most students consider graduate school (in the US or Germany) after they return
Results and ConclusionsThough there were many accomplishments during the summer academies these five are the mostnotable.1. The participant group was diverse, including students from rural and urban schools, with 25% being first generation and 50% being from underrepresented groups (women and minorities).2. During the second CU Engineering and Applied Mathematics Summer Academy the applicant pool grew from 40 in the 2016 to 80 in the 2017.3. The academy’s focus on team building and other soft skills helped the students expand their understanding of the necessary skills for both professional and personal success.4. Every student worked successfully in their assigned group.5. In 2016 every team successfully built and launched a rocket
between engineering and human kind as a soft skill because to me that’s the most technical skill, to be able to know what’s right to do when.Another interviewee echoed a similar sentiment with “people talking about the professionalskills, the hard skills and soft skills… we call them professional skills… I think in reality,those skills are much harder to learn.” Both of these educators found that calling ethical andsocietal skills “soft” is a disservice to their complexity since these skills can be the mostchallenging to teach and learn. Another interviewee expressed that even calling these skillsprofessional does not do them justice since they are inextricably part of the engineering. People used to call them soft skills… then people started
, interviews and surveys were conducted with 88 industryleaders in Florida. The goal of the survey was to identify the set of skills and competenciesacademia should produce to meet industry requirements in the area. The identified skills andcompetencies were used to guide the research team in the development of a new skilledworkforce oriented curriculum.The survey concentrated on two categories or set of skills, the soft skills and the technical skills.Soft skills included: Communications, team work/collaboration, work ethics,innovation/creativity, global competency, financial literacy, and flexibility/adaptability. Whilethe technical skills concentrated on the depth of technical knowledge, critical thinking andjudgment abilities, and system thinking
manufacturing at the ASlevel, and a solid grounding in manufacturing supervision and operations at the BS level.Graduates of this program have enjoyed 100% placement within a variety of local companies,although most are placed in the area of automotive manufacturing.ConclusionA common issue emerged when discussing the MDT degree with employers, that issue being theemployers’ desire for new graduates to be stronger in the so-called “soft skills” of oral andwritten communication and working in a team environment. While the technical andmanufacturing-themed courses built into the various MDT plans of study are crucial, thus far thecompanies with which we are working are willing to trade off some technical courses in order toinclude courses and subjects
results, in-line with a body of K12 research, projects with more authentic inquiry traits tend to be of a higher qualityand thus higher instructor-based assessment scores. When it comes to peer-assessment scores, only half ofthe authentic inquiry traits are found to have significant impact outcomes – these tend to relate to humanisticproperties and soft-skills – e.g. real-world impact, communication, collaboration, and enabling access to abroader community. Results seen in this work continue to motivate the re-use and adoption of pedagogicalpractices at the collegiate STEM level that have already been vetted by other educational communities,especially those found within the K-12 STEM educational research community.IntroductionThe most ubiquitous