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EDUCATORS ARE STRUGGLING TO PREPARE WELL-ROUNDED ENGINEERS FOR TODAY'S WORKPLACE

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These are not engineering questions. These are life questions. And these are the types of queries likely to come from corporate recruiters on college campuses in the hunt for the cream of engineering graduates.

Think of it as our own survival show, says Ken Lawrence, senior vice president of utility powerhouse Exelon Corp. and president of PECO Energy Co. in Philadelphia.

"If we were having our own survival show, there are certain skills you really need to survive here," he says. Start with speed, followed by a firm understanding of business and finance. Finish with the ability to explain what you are doing throughout the project to people who aren't engineers and get them involved in the process, counsels Lawrence.

It's the curse of the tribe. Engineers are just doomed to a stereotype that they haven't been able to shake free of for years. In the past, engineering educators haven't done much to help these fledgling graduates promote their cause outside of university inner sanctums. They have understandably relied on coursework heavy on technical analysis.

And that is still crucial. "We count on schools to graduate technically qualified people," says Jerry Bischof, director of nuclear engineering for Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources. "These graduates come out with phenomenal computer skills. They grew up with computers, and it shows." In 1995, the Engineering Criteria 2000 of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) put forth a rough draft of its mandate to educators to design curriculums that can produce engineers with the right skill sets to enter the job market. Now seven years later, what's the scorecard? How successful has it been? Have educators taken the recommendations to heart? How is it being implemented? Is there an underlying tension lurking between the two worlds of supply and demand?

It was no mistake that ABET's 2000 criteria flag this all-important skill blanketly called "communication." "Not only does the job have to get done in record time, you have to get your point across, and it's not going to be based on trust," says Exelon's Lawrence.

"It's not just, 'Trust me this is the way we have to do this,'" according to Lawrence. You have to work in the early stages getting feedback from various teams impacted by the changes and then work on the back end explaining your actions and how you got there, he says.

There are survivors in Exelon's world, Lawrence is happy to report. Engineers do exist who can actually be conversant and engage with others. They play nicely. They're creative and, truth be known, have even been known to be funny. These are skills that they are learning in their classrooms and on project teams.

The curriculums at many colleges, universities, and corporations have been tweaked and even overhauled in some cases in response to ABET's criteria. The quandary appears to be how fast the new approaches are being woven into the coursework. In general, there's a frustration on both sides that change isn't happening fast enough and constraints of budgets continue to hamper efforts.

It's not so much that academics are loath to make adjustments in the way engineers are educated. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone in either court to say that producing well-rounded students is not an admirable goal. It's that nagging dilemma of what is going to work within the confines of individual engineering schools.

Talking Heads

The most difficult piece to address, interestingly enough, has been basic human communication tools. The Achilles' heel here is that schools are just not quite sure what the best methods to teach communications skills are likely to be and how to execute them without undo expense. In all fairness, the type of person that is attracted to engineering is not necessarily the one who is the life of the party and naturally proficient at this set of skills.

"When we do a psychological test using the Myers-Brigg personality evaluation tool, it's clear that engineers as a whole tend to be introverts rather than extroverts," says Dominion's Bischof. There's a lack of comfort with engineers in general in large groups or in public-speaking situations." In Dominion's nuclear program, for instance, it's important that engineers are at ease in the field and introducing themselves into different groups of people. That's the only way they are going to be able to glean information that will help them do their jobs.

Dominion, like other companies surveyed, has had to learn to cope with smaller numbers of engineers on their payrolls. With keener competition in the industry, cost-cutting has inevitably resulted in fewer engineers to tackle the tasks at hand. "We rely on quality people to help us compete at this level, and they have to be able to communicate easily," says Bischof.

The business world just can't get by anymore on that old-school engineer working independently behind closed doors. Today, job ads in newspapers across the country for engineers plainly, boldly, and explicitly state that candidates must have excellent organizational and effective communications skills.