April 2006

Welcome to the April issue of Connections, the American Society for Engineering Education's free e-newsletter.

Spotlight On Our Sponsors:

• Autodesk - Higher Education Programs
  www.autodesk.com/education
   

• NI- Data Acquisition and Measurement Product Bundles
  http://digital.ni.com
   

• Z Corp- Best 3D Printer for MCAD Education 
  http://www.zcorp.com/
   

• ASM International Technical Journals
  www.asminternational.org/
  journals
   

• SAVE THE DATE- UPADI Conference!
  http://www.upadi2006.com

Autodesk - Higher Education Programs

As the world’s leading supplier of PC design software and digital content-creation tools, Autodesk wants to be your partner in preparing your students for future careers. Together we can expand the range of teaching and learning opportunities for you and your students and help build a bridge to their future. To learn more about Autodesk’s programs for higher education, visit www.autodesk.com/education

Data Acquisition and Measurement Product Bundles

Designed especially with educators and researchers in mind, National Instruments academic product bundles contain software, measurement or control hardware, cables, and connector accessories.  NI has created these bundles in key areas of engineering and science university curriculum and research to ensure maximum productivity for you and your students.

Click here for more!

http://digital.ni.com/express.nsf/
bycode/aan9te

Best 3D Printer for MCAD Education 
 Now More Affordable

Now purchase the best 3D Printer for MCAD education for 15% less than the 2005 price. You’ll help students better visualize designs by turning 3D CAD data into physical 3D models. And Z Corp. 3D printers produce concept models at half the cost of rapid prototyping machines –- and 5x-10x faster. Learn more.

ASM International Technical Journals

Why are ASM journals so frequently used and cited? Most ASM titles are critically reviewed, meaning that leading experts have reviewed the contents to ensure that only the most authoritative and timely information reaches your desk. From the latest research to practical solutions for engineering problems, ASM journals are among the most trusted titles in the materials field. Full content description of our eight offerings can be found at www.asminternational.org/journals.  Is your university a new subscriber?  Contact denise.smith@asminternational.org for special rates.

SAVE THE DATE- UPADI Conference, Sept. 19-22, 2006, Atlanta, GA

Global trade. Ethics. Economic Development.  Gain an international perspective on engineering and business practices throughout Central and South America at UPADI 2006.  Advance your professional growth and discover business opportunities through plenary sessions led by industry thought leaders and technical congresses by practicing engineers.

For more information- http://www.upadi2006.com

Welcome to the World of K–12 Engineering!

Introducing engineering into the K–12 classroom connects science and math concepts to the everyday engineering that surrounds us. TeachEngineering.com helps teachers enhance learning, excite students and stimulate interest in science and math through the use of hands–on engineering. With a fully searchable, digital library of standards–based lesson plans, and a myriad of “Living Laboratories” that bring real–world engineering principles into the classroom, TeachEngineering's comprehensive curricula are hands–on, inexpensive, and relevant to children's daily lives.

TeachEngineering.com is a joint effort of the University of Colorado, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Colorado School of Mines, Duke University, Oregon State University, and the American Society for Engineering Education, and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation.

Bring the world of engineering into the K–12 classroom with TeachEngineering.com. You don’t need knowledge of engineering to use these curricula!

Search TeachEngineering.com’s digital library at
www.teachengineering.com.

New and Improved Journal of Engineering Education!

The Journal of Engineering Education is a peer-reviewed international journal published quarterly by the American Society for Engineering Education. It serves as an archival record of the leading scholarly research in engineering education. Visit www.asee.org/publications/jee/ to read it online.

In this Issue:

I. Databytes

• Total Engineering Research Expenditures by Source: 2005, 2003, & 2001
• Top Engineering Research Schools by Expenditures, 2005

II. Congressional Hotline

• House Fails to Pass FY07 Budget Resolution
• NASULGC President Testifies at Higher Education Commission Hearing

III. Teaching Toolbox

• Under New Management - Engineers seeking to move up the career ladder are getting master's degrees in engineering management.

IV. Fellowship Programs

• The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

V. Call for Papers

• 2006 ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education

I. Databytes

Total engineering research expenditures by source in millions of dollars

2005 Total = $5.8 billion (188 schools reporting)           
2003 Total = $5.23 billion (182 schools) 
2001 Total = $4.26 billion (175 schools)

Percentage increases, 2005 – 2001

Non-Profit:   34%

Local:   33%

Federal:   29%

Foreign:   26%

State:   24%

Individual:   16%

Industry:   14%
 

2005

Top engineering research schools by expenditures

For more information, visit: www.asee.org/colleges

Back to the index.

II. Congressional Hotline

House Fails to Pass FY07 Budget Resolution

House Republican leaders abandoned efforts to approve the FY07 budget resolution (H. Con. Res. 376) before the Easter recess, after they were unable to broker a deal among House Republican conservatives, moderates, and appropriators.

CongressDaily reports that House conservatives want new rules cracking down on earmarks and restrictions on non-defense emergency spending. They also believe that House Appropriations Committee Chairman Jerry Lewis (R-CA) is too willing to make concessions to the moderates, who want increased funding for domestic programs. Chairman Lewis argues that the committee already has reduced the number of earmarks and that allowing earmarks to be challenged on the floor would create a game of “ping-pong” between the House and Senate, delaying important spending bills. He also opposes the proposal to require any non-defense emergency spending above $4.3 billion to be approved first by the Budget Committee. He urged his committee colleagues to vote against a budget resolution containing the measures called for by conservatives. 

CongressDaily also reports that the moderate House Republicans want Chairman Lewis to shift $7 billion from defense, homeland security, and foreign aid into domestic programs such as education and health, but that he is unwilling to move more than $3 billion from defense. That was not enough to sway the moderates.

In a prepared statement, House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) attributed the failure of the budget resolution to Democrats for refusing “to consider a fiscally-responsible approach rejecting the failed policies of more taxes and more spending.” He said he remained committed to “working with all members to reach agreement on budget process reforms so we can move forward with the budget after the Easter District work period.” The statement is available at: http://www.majorityleader.gov/news.asp?FormMode=Detail&ID=584.

The Student Aid Alliance, a coalition of more than 60 organizations, including AAU, sent a letter to all Members of the House on April 6 urging them to vote against the budget resolution. The letter said, “This budget fails to adequately maintain the nation’s decades-old commitment to educational opportunity and access to a college education, leaving millions of prospective students without the resources they need to acquire the knowledge and skills demanded by the global economy.”

A copy of the Alliance’s letter is available on the Alliance’s Web site at: http://www.studentaidalliance.org/news/H%20Con%20Res%20376.doc.   

NASULGC President Testifies at Higher Education Hearing

National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges President M. Peter McPherson testified before the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education during which he addressed the issue of “accountability” in higher education.  He discussed voluntary accountability efforts within higher education, and circulated the working paper on the issue being drafted by NASULGC.

A report on McPherson’s testimony and the hearing is available from Insider Higher Education at the following URL:  http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2006/04/10/commission

Back to the index.

III. Teaching Toolbox

Under New Management

With his electrical engineering degree in hand, Erik Neff went to work for a major software company in the late 1990s and had the kind of experience that can derail a career. The product he helped develop, a program that would proactively manage and monitor customers' computer systems, was technically brilliant but received very little business scrutiny before it was marketed. "We didn't take into consideration a number of customer needs," Neff says. "Security was a big problem. As an entry-level engineer, I did my job. But in hindsight, I see the problems very clearly."

In part, the dot-com boom was responsible for the lack of business insight within the company. "People were being hired right and left and not necessarily with the right skills," Neff says. But at the same time, Neff realized he needed more exposure to technology's business side if he wanted to climb the management ladder. He opted to return to school and get a degree that would give him business skills within a technical setting: a master's in engineering management (M.E.M.).

Like Neff, a growing number of engineers are choosing to complement their technical skills with business training. In the last decade, that number has accounted for a major increase in the number of American colleges and universities offering master's degrees in engineering management. In 2002, 269 schools offered management degrees, a 69 percent increase from 1994, according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in New York.

More degree programs are being offered because the demand is there from engineering students, says Robert Graves, co-director of the M.E.M. program at Dartmouth's Thayer School of Engineering. Some of these students have gone into engineering because they're good at math and science, but as they continue their studies, they realize they don't want to take a straight and more narrowly-focused doctoral engineering path, Graves says. Instead, they prefer to start their own company or take on leadership and management responsibilities relatively early in their careers.

In addition, accreditation requirements have resulted in a strong technical focus in the undergraduate curriculum, which means fewer business-related classes for undergraduates. If students want to pursue finance, business, and law-related classes, they need to consider a master's program.

Christine Schoaff chose to get an M.E.M. at Dartmouth because she wanted to start her own company, Endless Loop Software. "The degree has been useful because it allowed me to run a company and understand the basics of product management, project management, and engineering and business. It basically helped me make engineering profitable," she says. While a college graduate usually needs experience before going back to get an M.B.A., the M.E.M. programs are targeted at such early-career engineers.

Just as students are demanding more business skills, companies are also looking for employees with both technical expertise and management abilities "It's getting rarer and rarer for a college graduate to walk out of an institution and sit in a cubicle designing widgets in isolation," says Brad Fox, executive director of the M.E.M. program in the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University. "Engineers can't work in a vacuum anymore. They have to interact with business." Some technology-driven companies will "effectively grow their own engineering experts," according to Graves. But other companies are more strategic in recruiting engineering graduates who also have a highly developed sense of marketing, finance, and organizational behavior. "They should be able to communicate but also to determine when an elegant engineering solution may be far too expensive and the less elegant but more economical approach makes more sense," Graves says.

Fox says the increase in management degrees is driven by two factors: globalization and the speed of communication in today's marketplace. "In the past, innovations might take years to implement, but today's companies are required to innovate much more quickly and communicate that innovation much more effectively," he says. "Globalization drives the need to understand both business and engineering." As products such as microprocessors become more and more sophisticated, marketing departments need to become more technically savvy, he says.

In light of these factors, University of Southern California (USC) engineering dean C.L. Max Nikias has moved aggressively to design a new M.E.M. program in the Viterbi School of Engineering. "Technology innovation is going to be a major driver of economic development in the near future," he says. "Part of my ambition as dean is to position the school to capture this new wave of opportunity." Most of the 99 students enrolled in the M.E.M. program take the courses online through the school's Distance Education Network, the largest E-learning engineering graduate program in the country.

USC also recently announced the creation of the Stevens Institute for Technology Commercialization, which will facilitate the design of engineering management courses. The institute will have a dual role: One is the operations or business side of tech commercialization, and the other is education. "We want our engineering students to have some basic knowledge of tech commercialization when they earn a degree," Nikias says. In fact, USC plans to offer an undergraduate minor in engineering management next year.

Finding the Right Program

Although management degree programs are proving very useful for many students, Graves says it is important to study schools carefully before applying to a program. "Institutions that think they're positioned to offer those programs offer them, many of which are outgrowths of traditional industrial engineering master's programs," Graves says. "But simply labeling a program as engineering management may not be enough to distinguish it. Some programs exist on paper but may not exist in practice."

When Erik Neff began looking at some of the more popular M.E.M. programs, he found that each was a little different from the other. "It's not as much of a standard curriculum as you would find with an M.B.A. There are so many different applications of technology. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses. Duke has a strong business and law program. With USC, the focus was a lot more technical," Neff says.

Neff chose Duke, which offers a collaborative program among the university's engineering, law, and business schools. Courses emphasize such skills as understanding customer needs, selling and justifying ideas, working in teams, and being able to translate complex ideas into a layperson's terms. "Financial skills are also valuable because every business is driven by profits. You must be able to think about projects in terms of money," Fox says. A number of Duke graduates have even gone on to pursue law careers. Some write patents and others are patent attorneys, options that likely hadn't occurred to them as engineering undergraduates. Students also do a three-month internship working as an engineer or manager in an industrial environment.

Neff is now working for a pharmaceutical company, but he maintains a relationship with his alma mater. He initiated the development of a course at the company called the Industrial Practicum, which gives Duke M.E.M. students industry experience while they are still in school. Students learn about project management using a technology called Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which goes a step further than the traditional bar code system. Instead, a microchip is imbedded into a product so it can be read from 10 feet away. The many applications for RFID include inventory management and the identification of counterfeit drugs. Students educate GSK employees about RFID by putting together educational modules and project plans that stress both a technical and business angle. "It's a win-win situation. Students get practical experience, and they're bright and well educated, so we get some free work out of them. They get an opportunity that you can't create in the classroom," Neff says.

Engineers who choose M.E.M. programs over M.B.A. programs do so for various reasons. An M.B.A. is a more general degree for people with a multitude of backgrounds, and the M.E.M. is for the more technically minded, Fox says. Even a graduate with a technical M.B.A. is often hard-pressed to distinguish him or herself in the high tech industry. Yet experience is key: "Someone who is grounded in engineering is much more accepted as a leader or coordinator in the role of team manager. There is the practicality of how a company goes about staffing its strategic product development needs," Graves says.

USC Dean Nikias believes those who have engineering and business skills are going to be leaders in this century's high-tech industrial revolution. "We have only scratched the surface," he says. "We ain't seen nothin' yet. There will be an explosion of technology in the next 20 years. Those who have the skills to take this technology and start new businesses, they're going to be the winners in the long run."

Alice L. Daniel is a freelance writer based in Fresno, Calif.

Back to the index.

IV. Fellowship Programs

The Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

This program is open to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents and offers a competitive stipend as well as insurance, relocation, and travel allowances.  This program offers one to three year postdoctoral fellowships designed to increase the involvement of scientists and engineers from academia and industry to scientific and technical areas of interest and relevance to the Navy.  This program has a rolling admission.  Go to: http://www.asee.org/nrl to learn more about the program.

Back to the index.

V. Call for Papers

2006 Global Colloquium on Engineering Education

The American Society for Engineering Education is seeking submissions for the 2006 Global Colloquium on Engineering Education. The Colloquium will have three themes of major contemporary interest:

• Primary and Secondary Education
• Engineering for the Americas
• Development of Curriculum for the Global Engineer

The focus of the Colloquium is on successful strategies for dealing with each of these issues.  We encourage contributions that detail examples of what actions are being taken and what works and why, with supporting evidence.  The deadline for abstract submission is 3 May, 2006.

The Call for Papers and Author's Kit are available at www.asee.org/gcee2006/.  For more information, please contact Jenn Atkinson, Program Coordinator, at j.atkinson@asee.org

Back to the index.

ASEE Announces New User Interface for K-12 Outreach Program Database

Regular users of the EngineeringK12 Center’s outreach program database will now find the collection of K-12 and pre-college engineering, math, science, and technology programs easier to use and convenient to update.  By simply registering with the database, outreach program providers will now have access to the new user interface, allowing them to add, edit, and manage listings at anytime.  This feature will ensure that the most current information on engineering outreach programs is available to database searchers.

Home to hundreds of listings, the EngineeringK12 Center’s outreach program database is a great resource for parents, teachers, and students to search nationwide for an outreach program that matches their needs.  From lesson plans for teachers, to engineering summer camps for students, the database offers a wide variety of programs offered by universities, industry, and government.  Registration is only required to add and manage an outreach program in the database.  Registration is not required simply to search.

You can register to be an outreach program database user at: http://www.engineeringk12.org/educators/making_engineers_cool/search.cfm

Connections is brought to you by the American Society for Engineering Education.

Over 12,000 engineering and engineering technology faculty members and administrators enjoy the many benefits and services that ASEE offers. The Society's award-winning magazine ASEE Prism and academic publications (Journal of Engineering Education and Profiles of Engineering Colleges) keep members up to date with the best and latest in engineering education, engineering research trends, and academic issues, while 47 professional interest groups and a varied selection of meetings provide professional development and networking opportunities that no other society can offer within the engineering education community. Members also receive reduced rates at local and national conferences, discounts on ASEE products, money-saving members-only discounts on financial, insurance, and travel programs, plus an ever growing variety of online services. Our goal is to focus on issues that matter the most to you in our publications, meetings, and on-line services, and to enable you to interact with others who share your specific engineering and educational interests. To join online, just go to www.asee.org/members, or contact our member services department at 202-331-3520 for further information.

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