Work in progress — Engineering Leadership Program: A thematic learning community

Recent Progress in Design Education

“…Programs in leadership, and often engineering leadership, exist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 14 Iowa State University, 15 Claremont McKenna College, 16 Pennsylvania State University, 17 and the University of Illinois. 18 These programs each define and categorize leadership skills and capabilities in somewhat different ways.…”

Engineering leadership: grounding leadership theory in engineer's professional identities

“…The NAE's calls for reform have been taken up and implemented by many faculties of engineering (See for example, Athreya et al, 2010;Bayless, 2013;Cain & Cocco, 2013;Ellis & Petersen, 2011;Froyd, 2005;Ha, 2013;Hsiao, 2013;Kerns, Miller, & Kerns, 2005;Kumar & Hsiao, 2007;McCuen, 1999;NAE, 2005;Osagiede, Farmer Cox, & Ahn, 2013;Pitts et al, 2013;Simpson et al, 2012;Strong & Frank, 2013) resulting in an amazing range of delivery options and program elements. Engineering leadership education is currently offered through self-contained programs, stand-alone courses, co-curricular offerings, multi-year team projects, service learning opportunities, problem-based learning, coaching, mentorship, interdisciplinary team projects, professional learning communities, industry-sponsored "grand challenges" and institutional cooperation between two or more university faculties.…”

The Ebb and Flow of Engineering Leadership Orientations

“…The seven major categories parallel those used by Engineers Canada in their document "Core Engineering Competencies" [18]. We drew the 16 skills from the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board's 12 Graduate Attributes (similar to ABET) [16] and supplemented this list with management and communication skills drawn from the Engineers Canada Core Engineering Competencies document [18]. Participants evaluated colleagues they identified as exemplars of technical mastery, collaborative optimization and organizational innovation on all 16 skills.…”

“…A growing body of literature on engineering leadership includes: 1) calls for leadership and professional skill development in faculties of engineering [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15]; 2) engineering leadership program descriptions written by institutional insiders [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30]; and 3) applications of traditional leadership theory to engineers' work [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40]. While this literature presents us with important insights about the rationale for including leadership education in engineering programs, descriptions of the content and pedagogy used by instructors and faculty members beginning to implement these programs, and assessments of engineers' work in relation to managerial leadership theories, very few researchers have stepped back to conceptualize engineering leadership from the perspective of professional engineers.…”