A RENAISSANCE ENGINEER

"The main thing is that they get a chance to practice, hands-on," Chairman Pratt explains. In their junior year, they have to go into the machine shop and build an engine; in the second semester, they redesign and optimize that same engine for performance." Finally, in their senior year, the integrated engineering students work with industry on a real-world project.

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING

Last year, Smead Manufacturing Co., an office supply manufacturing company in Cedar City, Utah, with 280 employees, offered internships to four of SUU's students, three of whom were in the integrated engineering program. "One of the IE students came up with an idea that would allow us to automate a portion of our packing and inspection process," says Dave Luthan, a manufacturing engineer with Smead. "He also proposed that they design that section of machinery for their senior project. We thought it was a good idea, and it became a pretty good joint effort: The university helped with the project management end of it, and we supported the technical and financial involved. The machine is up and working."

According to Gordon Goodall, general manager at Smead, the improved machinery is going to reduce manufacturing costs and allow Smead, a 100-year-old company, to be more competitive in the marketplace. The automation has also made huge gains ergonomically. Previously, the packing process caused injuries, while the new machine makes the employees' jobs easier and less stressful on their bodies.

Goodall emphasizes that there were hundreds of smaller projects that the three IE interns were involved with along the way. "It's a great situation for us as well as for the students."

The gains of hiring an integrated engineer aren't necessarily limited to small- and medium-sized businesses. Richard Murdock, rotational engineer co-coordinator for Utah's department of transportation, says they have hired one SUU integrated engineering graduate and they're hoping to hire more in the future. "We have an awful lot of highways that we're maintaining in the southern part of the state, and we don't really have the pipeline from one of our traditional civil engineering schools, so we're hoping to build a relationship with SUU. Hopefully, with our relationship, they will put out some engineers who are looking toward the transportation area. We are quite excited about the IE program."

Blaine Leonard, former vice president of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a member of SUU's integrated engineering advisory board in its beginning stages, notes how over the past 100 years, the engineering profession has specialized or splintered and will probably continue to do so to some degree. "Integrated engineering is kind of a counter to that trend. In theory, the integrated engineer would have the ability to understand the big picture and might be well-suited for some managerial kind of roles in an engineering operation."

One question remains: Is there a risk in an integrated engineer being a jack-of-all-trades, master of none? "The answer is yes and no," Pratt says. "In the eyes of human resource people, their first cut is to sort by degree title. If it doesn't say mechanical, they toss it."