Engineering Management: The Practical Discipline

A headline in USA Today caught my eye: "Education gaps leave graduates ill-prepared." 1 The lead stated: "College graduates enter the work force with strong technical skills but aren't very good at communicating, being part of a team or accepting ambiguity, among other things." The "other things" included ethics and global awareness. The report was the result of a study done by the Task Force on High-Performance Work and Workers, sponsored by the Business-Higher Education Forum, affiliated with the American Council on Education. 2 This sentiment was expressed earlier in the halls of The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) via the 1995 National Science Foundation report Restructuring Engineering Education, as well as a Prism article on Pennsylvania State University. The university's Leonhard Center for the Innovation and Enhancement of Engineering Education has funded a new leadership minor, which Director Jack Matson described: "There are five basic things the world tells us we need to do to radically improve engineering education: . . . to enhance communication skills, increase international outlook, broaden understanding of business, encourage creativity, and call attention to ethical concerns regarding technology and society." 3