文档介绍：Improving the Professional Skills of Engineering Graduate Students through Capstone Project Mentoring in IEWorks
Dan Gerbus, Dan Cordon, Matthew Walker, Robert Drew,
Edwin Odom, Steven Beyerlein, Karl Rink
University of Idaho
Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Traditional engineering graduate programs focus on coursework and thesis research, which may or may not adequately develop students’ professional skills for engineering positions in industry. This paper describes an alternative graduate program developed at the University of Idaho called the Idaho Engineering Works (IEWorks). IEWorks is focused on developing leadership, creativity, communication, and time management skills in addition to traditional course and thesis work. This pares the IEWorks experience to other student experiences using surveys of current and future graduate students, alumni, and faculty. The results of the surveys suggest the increased workload in IEWorks interferes with thesis research and coursework. However, the data also suggests the professional skills developed in the program are highly valued by the majority of the graduates and offset the additional workload.
Introduction
With downsizing, the growing global marketplace, and faster new product releases, competitive corporations have to e more efficient and flexible. In order for the corporation to be efficient, its employees must operate efficiently. In response to this movement, academia is being asked to take more responsibility in the overall development of engineers beyond technical ,2 Academia is changing undergraduate curriculums to address these However, graduate programs also need to change to modate the changing industrial demands.
Typical graduate programs in engineering anized into functional areas similar to the traditional corporate business structures. In mechanical engineering, these functional areas include thermodynamics and solid mechanics. Graduate research groups are generally associated