Ensuring professional skills development

The Future of Engineering and Technology Education

Ensuring professional skills development O P I N I O N

David G. Michelson TODAY’S GRADUATING STUDENTS likely have the best set of soft skills–the interpersonal, communication and leadership skills that they need to fully benefit from their studies and succeed in their careers – of any cohort in Canadian history. Not only are they confident, work well together, communicate effectively and can plan ahead, each new group appears to build on the successes of the last. Part of the credit goes to their parents, many of who work in the technology sector and are doing an outstanding job of encouraging and supporting their sons and daughters. Part of the credit also goes to Canadian industry, the energy and enthusiasm with which employers have embraced co-operative education, and the encouragement and support that students receive in the workplace and bring back to their university when their work term concludes. Since its modest beginnings in the late 1950s, co-operative education has changed the way that undergraduate students view both themselves and their intended profession. Part of the credit goes to modern information technology and the manner in which it literally puts the knowledge and experience of the community and the profession at all of our fingertips, including those of today’s graduating students. It is interesting to note the extent to which modern information technology also levels the playing field by ensuring that everyone has more or less equal access to the same vast repositories of on-line information. Student-led and organized extracurricular activities have long been effective and popular venues for imparting and developing soft skills. However, the need to deliver soft skills training more consistently across a growing and increasingly diverse cohort has motivated recent interest in incorporating soft skills training into the formal engineering curriculum. The rapid and effective manner in which Canadian universities have responded is noteworthy. Part of the credit goes to the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) and its parent organization, the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers, popularly referred to as Engineers Canada. Formed nearly 50 years About the Author David G. Michelson is with the University of British Columbia, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in Vancouver. In addition to his role as Chair of IEEE Canada’s Industry Relations Committee, he also serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society (and Editor of the IEEE Press Series on Vehicular Technology), Member of the Board of Governors of the IEEE Communications Society (and Director of Education), Member of the IEEE History Committee and Member of the IEEE Canadian Foundation. He can be reached at [email protected]

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION N

SPECIA

by Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan

IF YOU REALLY WANT SOFT SKILLS in engineers, then there must be a deliberate effort to cultivate those skills. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways in university design: 1) Faculty members who have industry experience as part of overall faculty composition; 2) All students should be expected to undertake at least one semester/summer of industry internship; 3) Guest lectures in courses by industry practitioners; 4) Culminating capstone projects derived from industry, co-supervised by academic faculty and industry practitioners; 5) Active engagement of industry practitioners in the development of the curriculum; 6) Industry projects being a part of the mix of research activities of some of the faculty members; 7) Other industry-sponsored projects to expose students to practical applications. Sethuraman “Panch” Panchanathan is Senior Vice President, Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development, Director, Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing (CUbiC) and Foundation Chair in Computing and Informatics ago and served by members from both industry and academia, CEAB ensures that graduates of accredited engineering programs have the skills they need to become productive members of the profession. CEAB’s method for challenging Canadian engineering schools to incorporate soft skills training into the engineering curriculum has ensured that training is consistent across both a cohort at a single school and also across the country. Part of the credit goes to Canadian engineering schools and the senior leadership at their respective universities. Not only are Canadian universities placing increasing emphasis on both student engagement and the student experience, they are also providing faculty members and co-op coordinators with the teaching resources, cooperative learning and project spaces, and information technology that they require to meet CEAB goals related to soft skills. It’s a powerful combination that is yielding rich rewards. Part of the credit also goes to the increasing number of faculty members and co-op coordinators in Canadian engineering schools who have accumulated significant industry experience before returning to academia. They are both well prepared to help students develop the skills that they will require in order to succeed in the workplace and highly motivated to do so. There are still gaps to fill, but support for filling them has never been stronger. Perhaps our greatest challenge is to more effectively communicate the recent enhancements to our engineering curriculum to our colleagues in industry and engage them more directly in helping our students to further develop their soft skills. ■ L FOCU S

Summer / Été 2013

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