The Role And Scope Of Engineering Consulting In A Balanced And Integrated Career And Personal/Family Life Of A New Engineering Educator

This paper will explore how engineering consulting fits into the role and scope of a new engineering professor’s career and his/her pursuit of “academic wealth” [1, 2, 3]. Consulting is defined as offering one’s professional services to external clientele for a fee or other reward, usually independent of one’s standard university salary [4]. Although a fundamental part of engineering, consulting for engineering professors can be an ill-defined and controversial matter within the framework of employment, time, public relations, and intellectual property policies of a university and whether a particular university actively encourages and supports, passively allows, discourages, or prohibits such activities.