Visioning Transition: A Framework For Collaborative Change

Tomorrow's engineers will look nothing like the engineers of the past. Aside from a proficiency in core, technical knowledge, tomorrow's engineers will require a collection of non-engineering skills and competencies to successfully function in a dynamic, global environment. Technical competency will always be viewed as an integral skill; differential advantage however, will be gained by those individuals that can communicate effectively, and participate fully in an organization's different functional realms. What has motivated this vision and rethinking of the engineering discipline? Where are we in the journey to prepare our students for an engineering working environment characterized by a global, integrated and multi-disciplinary nature? And finally, is it possible, or should it be necessary, for traditional engineering education systems to fundamentally change to meet corporate requirements? These are but a few of the compelling issues discussed in this paper. 1. Situational Background During the summer of 1999, eleven individuals representing a variety of engineering disciplines and universities spent eight weeks at the Boeing Company as A.D Welliver Faculty Fellows. The primary objective of the Boeing sponsored A.D. Welliver Faculty Fellowship program is to "influence the content of engineering education in ways that will better prepare tomorrow's graduates for the practice of engineering in a world-class industrial environment." Now in its fifth year of existence, the Boeing faculty fellowship program has served as a premier, innovative example of university/industry partnership. The summer of 1999 was a period of transition for the Boeing Company. Fellows gained invaluable experience and insight by closely observing, and participating in both the challenges and opportunities faced by the company as it continued the process of corporate reengineering. At the end of the eight-week experience, faculty fellows left their respective assignments with examples and class material unmatched by any textbook treatment. Furthermore, the engineer's cross-functional role in an organizational context, as well as the required skills needed by new