General Education: Key for Success for an Entrepreneurial Engineering Career

• Published in: Association for Engineering Education - Engineering Library Division Papers p. 25.666.1
• Main Authors: Petersen, Owe G, Kent, R David, Howe, Christina, Vollaro, Mary B
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Atlanta American Society for Engineering Education-ASEE 10.06.2012
• Subjects: Careers; Colleges & universities; Curricula; Education; Engineering; Engineering education; Engineering profession; Entrepreneurship; Graduates; Problem solving; Skills

General Education – Key for Success for an Entrepreneurial Engineering Career Owe Petersen1 David Kent1 Christina Howe2 Mary B. Vollaro3 1 Milwaukee School of Engineering 2 University of Evansville 3 Western New England UniversityAbstractThe purpose of an education is not just to provide job skills, but to provide the foundation for acareer. For engineering graduates, it is critical to recognize while technical skills are perishable,professional skills will endure. The latter skills will play a key role in career advancement andjob survival since professional skills, when accompanied by technical skills, provide career value.This includes but is not limited to the ability to recognize societal needs, asses perceived versusreal needs, work with others to address these needs, communicate effectively. However, it is inparticular for the development of entrepreneurial minded graduates, who will pursue careersreplete with innovation and problem solving, that the disciplines often termed General Studiesare essential.If an engineering program has superb technical content, what, if anything, can be done to raisethe level of educational excellence in its graduates? The answer is to integrate the coreprofessional skills cultivated by General Studies into the engineering curriculum. A centralthesis of this paper is that engineering and General Studies differ in specific content but arehighly complementary in the desired educational outcomes of its graduates. Hence, theembrace of General Studies is the wedge to provide an education that opens the mind topossibilities not normally encouraged, seen, or pursued in a traditional engineering education.Hence, General Studies is an essential educational component to be embraced as being on parwith technical topics.The challenge to an engineering curriculum can be defined in mathematical terms. Compare theessentials of a normal engineering education, its emphases on technical courses, math andscience, to the professional component. The reality and the desired outcomes for graduates canbe stated as: An 80/20 curriculum must result in a 50/50 graduate, - where the ratios represent percentagesIntroducing an entrepreneurial mindset in an engineering curriculum will not be accomplishedby adding courses. This challenge must be addressed by making the liberal arts and socialscience topics relevant to engineering students in a practical sense that allows engineeringgraduates to commit to engaging in a world driven by more than technical facts. Professionalskills and engineering skills/knowledge must be integrated, often together in the same course,because that is how the graduates will engage their careers and innovate.