Manufacturing engineering students at Bradley University are setting aside their hard hats and calculators for a few new career courses this fall: art ceramics, writing and public speaking.
The new classes, part of a curriculum reform at the Peoria-based university, are designed to fill gaps in engineering education that had been identified by employers in a survey conducted by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers last year.
The survey identified 14 “competency gaps” that included communication skills, teamwork, reliability, and project management and design, explains Ibraham Nisanci, director of research and a professor with the 30-year-old engineering program.
“Manufacturing engineers work in a business environment that requires more than hard technical skills. They need communication and presentation skills, the ability to work in teams and understand how their jobs fit into the whole supply chain of their employers. It’s critical that a manufacturing engineering program such as ours provide training in those skills as well as the technical engineering skills.”
Faculty members from the Bradley English and Art departments will be creating multimedia course modules that use techniques from their respective disciplines to improve the presentation and report-generation skills of engineering students and enhance their ability to manage projects outside the usual range of manufacturing systems.
The curriculum reform will also include diversity training with a new course called “Women in the Work Force: Preparing for the 21st Century.”
“Manufacturing engineering is an excellent but underutilized career choice for women,” Nisanci says. “It is important that as part of our curriculum development, we provide more opportunity and encouragement for women.”
Some of the new courses will be integrated with professional internships at Caterpillar Co. in Peoria and Boeing Co. in St. Louis. “It’s important for engineering students to have practical experience and we are lucky to have relationships with world class engineering employers who can help students practice what they learn in a professional environment. They will have a full opportunity to test the range of their skills and use their new training,” Nisanci says.
The new curriculum is funded with a $250,000 joint grant from the SME Education Foundation and the National Science Foundation, part of $1.7 million given last year to nine colleges and universities that plan curriculum improvements. The organizations plan to give $1.3 million in grants later this year.
Curriculum projects range from new kinds of courses for engineers to practical apprenticeships and prototype design studios for undergraduate engineering students, says Randy Maiers, manager of the SME Education Foundation.
“These projects are just the beginning of a new movement in manufacturing education that will make graduates much more effective in the real world of engineering employment, ” he says. “Manufacturers told us that they want and will support mutually effective partnerships between companies and education if it leads to graduates who can hit the ground running as new hires.”
The college and university grants are part of a comprehensive educational program initiated by SME last year. The association is promoting the new college curriculum projects as part of a program of professional lifelong learning for engineers.
“The educational needs of engineers have changed over the past few years and they are likely to continue to evolve as employers identify their needs for engineering workers,” says Michael D. Wright, SME career development and lifelong learning specialist. “What we really need are programs to help these engineers learn to learn so the process of their education can continue throughout their career as their need for skills evolves.”
SME is also working on an Internet-based competency assessment program for working engineers. Later this year, mid-career manufacturing engineers will be able to use home or office computers to test their proficiency at various technical and management skills, and identify areas that need improvement, Wright says.
The on-line system will then suggest educational resources that can help the engineers improve their skills with readings or professional education classes.
SME recently launched a Web site designed to encourage interest in manufacturing by students. The site (www.manufacturing
school.com) features a list of colleges that offer manufacturing engineering majors, a guide to scholarships, a curriculum guide for elementary and high school teachers, and educational games.
