Strengthening The U.S. Engineering Workforce For Innovation: A Progress Report Of The National Collaborative Initiative

This is the first of four invited papers prepared for the special panel session of the ASEE-National Collaborative Task Force for Engineering Graduate Education Reform. This paper presents an overview of the initiative. The paper reaffirms the National Collaborative strategy that the present and future industrial strength of U.S. technology for economic prosperity and national security is ultimately reflected in the strength and innovative capacity of the nation’s engineering infrastructure in industry for technology development and innovation. This strength must be sustained by a strong U.S. system of professional graduate engineering education directly relevant to the growth needs of the U.S. engineering workforce in industry which is the primary mainstay of our competitiveness as a nation. 1. Proposed ─ A Bold Initiative The National Collaborative Task Force, comprised of leaders from industry and universities across the country, proposes to initiate, guide, and implement a major advancement in U.S. professional graduate engineering education that ─ Ø Recognizes that the future industrial strength of U.S. technology for economic prosperity and national security is ultimately reflected in the strength and innovative capacity of the nation’s engineering infrastructure in industry for technology development and innovation. Ø Recognizes the national imperative in winning the skills race and strengthening U.S. innovation through professional graduate engineering education specifically designed to unlock the creative, innovative and leadership potential of the U.S. graduate engineering workforce in America’s industry. Ø Provides degreed engineers, employed in industry, a new type of world-class professional graduate education that is integrative with the engineer’s experience and on-going creative engineering work to improve the technological competitiveness of regional industry across the nation. Ø Integrates the modern paradigm of the process of engineering for technology innovation with practice that enables the engineer to create, develop, and innovate new technology and improvements specific to his or her sponsoring company as a primary ingredient of the engineer’s advanced studies program. Ø Provides a coherent approach for the lifelong learning of experienced working professionals through the professional master’s and professional doctor of engineering levels that enables career progression and development of leaders at all engineering levels from entry-level through chief engineer / vice president level responsibility of corporate planning, technical program making and technology policy making. P ge 14075.3 2. Engineering the Future ─ Professional Graduate Engineering Education To Enhance U.S. Innovation in Industry for Competitiveness Today, as never before, America’s future technological strength for economic competitiveness and national security depends on continuous innovation by its engineers working in industry and government service. Their ideas are the creative well-spring of U.S. technological development. The need for innovation has been stressed by the Council on Competitiveness, which calls it “the single most important factor in determining America’s success though the 21 century.”As such, the National Academies’ report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm recommends that we “ensure that the United States is the premier place in the world to innovate.” 2 The American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI) has been enacted with swift bipartisan support. What Is the Problem that we want to Fix? Ø The need for America to revitalize its innovative capacity for technological competitiveness has risen as a national priority to create jobs at home, to rebuild America’s industry, to improve our economy by creating wealth in these troubled economic times, and to sustain our national security. But the U.S. imperative for innovation points up a disturbing imbalance in graduate education funding and emphasis that must be corrected in engineering. Over the last several decades, the United States invested wisely in research-oriented graduate education and has become preeminent in basic university research that advances science and benefits the scientific workforce for discovery. But a parallel investment and balanced emphasis has not been made in professional graduate engineering education during this same time frame to support the continued development of the U.S. engineering workforce in industry for technology development and innovation. Ø One-size in graduate education doesn’t fit all. Excellence in basic research and in the practice of engineering for world-class technology development and innovation are two very different pursuits. A disconnect has existed between U.S. graduate engineering education and engineering practice during the last several decades. Lack of a system of coherent professional graduate education, relevant to the creative practice of engineering, has been a contributing factor to the long-tem underdevelopment of our nation’s engineering potential, threatening competitiveness. Why Do We Want to Fix the Problem Now? Ø Whereas undergraduate engineering education prepares newly minted degreed engineers for entry into the practice of engineering, it does not prepare for all levels of responsibility. As the National Academy of Engineering points out ─ “The comfortable notion that a person learns all that he or she needs to know in a four-year engineering program just is not true and never was.” Engineering experience and further advanced studies are yet to come. There are eight levels of progressive growth and responsibility beyond the beginning entry level. 5 Growth to these increasingly progressive levels deserves further graduate education to more fully develop the creativity, innovativeness and leadership abilities of the nation’s engineers for enhanced competitiveness. Ø The ASEE-National Collaborative Task Force for Engineering Graduate Education Reform was deliberately created in 2000 by the ASEE-Graduate Studies Division, Corporate Members Council, and the College Industry Partnership Division to meet this challenge. Composed of leaders from industry and universities across the nation, the National Collaborative initiative has a goal of developing a new model of professional graduate engineering education for the nation’s degreed engineers in industry that is integrative with the graduate’s on-going practice of engineering, while fully employed in industry, and furthers his or her career-long professional growth at all levels of engineering responsibility. P ge 14075.4 What Is Our Overall Strategy for the Advancement of Professional Graduate Engineering Education? Ø The National Collaborative Task Force is building its overall strategy for educational reform to enhance U.S. engineering innovation in strong agreement with Whitfield’s assertion that ─ “It is taken as self-evident that the creative output of [any nation’s] engineering will be raised quickest and over the widest area by successful efforts to improve the creativity of the engineer already in industry, specifically the engineer who has added an adequacy of experience to his or her basic technical training.” 6 Ø Thus, the National Collaborative strongly believes that one of the best and quickest ways to boost our nation’s competitive advantage for sustained engineering innovation for global competitiveness and national security is through a deliberate, planned advancement for a new model of professional graduate engineering education that is specifically designed for lifelong learning to further develop our nation’s experienced engineering talent at all leadership levels throughout their entire creative professional careers of engineering practice in industry. Ø The new model of professional graduate engineering education can become a ‘game changer’ to enhance U.S. innovative capacity in engineering. The Task Force concludes that engineering education is not a one-time process, but a progressive process of learning, growth, and human development ... and, to compete, our nation’s engineers must continuously grow throughout their careers and become ‘champions, innovators, and engineer-leaders’ of new, improved, and breakthrough technology that continuously outpaces our competitors. Has the Modern Process and Practice of Engineering Itself Changed for Technology Innovation?