Faculty With Industrial Experience Bring A Real World Perspective To Engineering Education

This paper addresses the advantages, experiences, and course enrichment that professors with industrial experience bring into the classroom. The two authors, who together represent nearly 50 years of full time engineering practice, discuss how they have presented material to students that allow them to share in those years of practical experience. Engineers that have worked full time in industry and returned to the university to pass on their knowledge and experience bring a depth of real world case studies that they lived through. These practitioners bring an entirely different perspective to the classroom. Although research is valuable, the traditional progression through B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. Degrees directly to teaching should not be the only perspective students receive. The vast majority of students will begin careers in industry after graduation and therefore would benefit from the experience and lessons learned from those who have really encountered the problems while functioning as a full time practicing engineer. The theory is the same but the practical execution and frame of mind are different than that of the researcher. Today’s students need both perspectives if they going to be able to compete in the highly competitive global economy. The student of today needs to be more job ready and know more then just theories if they are to compete for the jobs of tomorrow. Exactly how this unique perspective has helped to shape the curriculum at Eastern Washington University’s (EWU) Engineering Technology Programs will be described. Engineers who return to the classroom are also able to relate with industrial partners more easily. They “talk their language” and can therefore help forge additional bonds with industry. Examples of these alliances along with how students and employers have responded to the curriculum changes are also explored. Students have indicated that as a result of including these real world engineering experiences in the curriculum they became more job ready and were actually receiving job offers as a result. Finally the paper will present the authors reflections for the future and how they intend to stay in touch and keep the pulse of a changing industrial landscape.