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Her research interests relate to the career development of women in management, information technology, and engineering. Her reseach also focuses on diversity and human behavior in engineering.

This past decade has been characterized by a series of changes in engineering education, beginning with the recognition of the need to incorporate human behavior skills in engineering education. Now, it is important to understand the importance and benefits that human behavior skills can bring engineers as they apply their technical knowledge in today's ever-changing and multidisciplinary world. This paper will report and discuss what human behavior skills encompass, the importance of human behavior skills in engineering education, methods for teaching human behavior skills in engineering, and the future of human behavior skills in engineering.the curriculum of university engineering programs. However, in spite of some increases in the last decade, human behavior skills in engineering continues to be limited.Many authors in the literature have emphasized the human behavior skills engineers need in order to apply their technical expertise successfully. Selinger ( 2003) noted that non-technical skills, such as making decisions, setting priorities, working in teams, running meetings, and negotiating, that every engineer needs to be more effective in the workplace and happier in life. Orsted (2000) stressed the importance of human behavior skills, which govern behavior at meetings, towards colleagues, on the phone, and the way problems and conflict are approached are needed by engineers in the daily interaction with others. In addition, Hissey (2000) pointed out human behavior skills, such as teamwork, communication, leadership, and interpersonal skills that have a career enhancing value and may save engineers from downsizing. In addition, Nguyen (1998) pointed out human behavior skills and attributes such as communication, social, presentation, interpersonal, leadership, management, and team-working skills that engineers need to confront new challenges in the ever-changing and multidisciplinary field that constitutes engineering in today's global environment. Additionally, Manseur (2003) refers to the need of a "broad education that goes beyond traditional engineering topics and includes areas such as ethics, team work, oral communication, life-long learning, and an awareness of the impact of engineering on society to name just a few" (p.1). All the authors mentioned above brought attention to the human behavior related skills that engineers need in order to successfully apply their technical knowledge in today's ever-changing and multidisciplinary world.In 1994, industry, academe, and government collectively concluded and stated that engineering students need to receive human behavior skills in order to be successful professionals within the modern American industry (ABET, 2004). Since then, several studies have also expressed this need by stating that human behavior skills are of particular relevance in the formation and success of the modern engineer (

The purpose of this study was to develop an understanding of the workplace environment characteristics that hinder and assist the career progression of women in information technology. This study utilized a qualitative design, which provided a comprehensive understanding of the workplace environments that hinder and assist the career progression of women in information technology. The major research method for this study was in-depth, semi-structured telephone interviews with a group of twenty-five women in positions in information technology from across the United States. The findings revealed that the workplace environment and culture characteristics identified by the women in information technology have both positive and negative aspects. Some of the negative aspects included: Male dominated (good old boy culture), very competitive, and diversity not valued. Some of the positive aspects included: Teamwork oriented; results driven culture; and high accountability.This study examined both the positive and negative roles that workplace environment and culture play in the career development of women in information technology. The literature has described the IT workplace culture as having certain characteristics that are unique to the industry and unique to White male culture. The IT culture has been described as largely white, male dominated, anti-social, individualistic, and competitive. Although many of these workplace characteristics were supported by this study, it was the collaborative and teamwork oriented aspect of their workplace environment and working together on projects and building close relationships with colleagues that benefited the study participants the most in their career development. If organizations want to attract and retain talented women into their IT workforce, they must have an understanding of both positive and negative workplace environment factors that affect women's career development in IT.

This past decade has been characterized by a series of changes in engineering education, including the incorporation of human behavior skills into the list of learning outcomes required for engineering program accreditation. This paper describes the efforts of a college of engineering at a large university in the midwest to improve the human behavior skills and capabilities of undergraduate students through an emotional intelligence course. We describe our approach, our conceptual model, and some of the progress we have made to date.