Engineering As A Social Activity: Preparing Engineers To Thrive In The Changing World Of Work

Abstract

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Key macro-trends are combining to create a new work context for the practice of engineering. Telecommuting and virtual teams create myriad possibilities and challenges related to managing work and workers. Social network technology tools allow for unprecedented global, 24/7 collaboration. Globalization has created hyper-diverse organizations, magnifying the possibility for both generative creativity and destructive conflict. A growing body of research makes it clear that effectiveness in the changing world of work requires thinking differently and working differently. There is an emerging consensus that socio-cultural competence is an essential addition to the technical competence that has traditionally been identified as critical for engineers. Related to this, the value added to the work of engineering by the development of emotional intelligence (EI) competencies is gaining attention in the professional and the educational engineering literature. This paper describes a program for integrating emotional intelligence content into the curriculum in order to better prepare graduates to add value to their organizations and experience personal success working in the new normal. It also discusses the findings from a multi-year research study that measured the results of the program. </span></p></div></div></div>

Building the Engineering Mindset: Developing Leadership and Management Competencies in the Engineering Curriculum

“…Engineering has historically been a blend of the application of specialized scientific knowledge to useful applications with a business aspect [16]. As the structure of engineering work has evolved with globalization there is an increased expectation of collaboration, telecommuting, virtual teams, increased multi disciplinary diverse collaboration and project complexity hence the requirements for professional (and contextual) skills have increased for engineers [17].…”

Learning to Learn: Defining an Engineering Learning Culture

“…The rapidly changing work of engineers [53] creates additional tension between historical engineering education paradigms and the requirements for practicing engineering now and in the near future. The continual improvement process and focus on graduate attribute development will have an ongoing impact on our learning culture.…”

“…In the first step, documents related to the history and development of the CEAB graduate attributes, performance outcome-based education, online and blended learning delivery, learning theories, motivation, intelligence, design, innovation, metacognition and reflection, engineering practice and leadership, lifelong learning, qualitative and quantitative research methods, continual improvement, and learning culture were identified. The second step comprised "reading for a multidisciplinary perspective" and included engineering accreditation and work descriptions [14,36,37,52,53], education, learning, innovation, metacognitive and lifelong learning literatures. The results of this step are outlined in our literature review and presented as a graphical summary of the philosophical, epistemic, learning theory, and delivery framework relationships in Appendix A.…”

Why I Am an Engineering Major: A Cross-Sectional Study of Undergraduate Students

“…Some of the perceptions include engineers as autonomous, technically inclined, persistent, male, introverted, and socially limited. However, the evolution of global perspectives and the involvement of engineers in international situations requires a capacity for high levels of social interaction, sensitivity, conscientiousness, and the need to be emotionally stablesuggesting that traditional stereotypes may not hold for the present day engineer 15,16 . In Robbins 17 report on "reflexive engineers" it is apparent that the skills needed to be an effective engineer are inconsistent with some of the traditional stereotypes, yet there is a persistent need for high levels of technical and STEM knowledge.…”