Tag Archives: education

Episode 65 — A Whole New Engineer

AWNEcoverIn a lively discussion of how to best prepare today’s engineering students for tomorrow’s engineering challenges, we talk with Dave Goldberg and Catherine Whitney about their new book, A Whole New Engineer.

  • Any “dot-com” dreams that Brian harbored during his college days have long since dissipated.
  • Carmen suggests that ridiculous buyout amounts are now measured in units of “Instagrams,” with one Instagram equaling one billion US dollars.
  • Engineers must constantly expand and refine their skills; Jeff notes that over his career he has moved from drawing prints on a drafting board, to working with 2D CAD packages, to implementing 3D models.
  • Our first guest for this episode is Dave Goldberg, who appeared previously on Episode 37, in which he talked with us about the evolution of engineering roles over time. Dave leads ThreeJoy Associates, a consulting firm that advises educational institutions.
  • Our second guest is Catherine Whitney, a New York-based writer who has previously written or co-written more than forty books on a wide range of topics, including nutrition, social issues, and entrepreneurial success.
  • Dave argues that the “old engineer” was entirely appropriate in a time of expertise and narrow technical focus. However, a “new engineer” must reach across disciplinary boundaries, and solve problems in domains that lack recognized experts.
  • Domenico Grasso has written about the importance of taking a holistic approach to engineering education and practice.
  • Catherine mentions the myth of the “lone genius.”
  • Dave makes a passing reference to disruptive innovation, a term coined by Clayton Christensen to describe the manner in which existing markets and institutions may be displaced through the introduction of new technologies.
  • Current technological trends have led to people “bowling alone,” a phrase the describes how individuals are disengaging from the social and political networks that comprise local communities.
  • Richard Feynman’s physics lectures are mentioned by Dave.
  • The story of Jack Andraka is offered as an example of how academic expertise is being undermined over time.
  • Jeff notes differences between “just-in-time” and “just-in-case” learning.
  • Dave notes that more than one version of the Grinter Report (pdf) was proposed back in the mid-1950s.
  • Our guests mention a study by Kristen Wolfe, later referenced by Woodie Flowers of MIT, that looked at the skills used by mechanical engineers five years after they graduated from college.
  • Carmen references one of his favorite books, The Art and Science of Analog Circuit Design, by Jim Williams.
  • An engineering leadership program at the University of Texas El-Paso is cited by Dave as an example of aspiration-specific education.
  • Fernando Flores has written about the power of words in motivating action and establishing commitments.
  • Dave was involved in establishing iFoundry at the University of Illinois, while co-author Mark Somerville was (and is) a faculty member at Olin College.
  • References are made to Daniel Pink’s book Drive, and to Edward Deci’s work on intrinsic motivation (one example of which is his book Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation.
  • A TED talk by Sugata Mitra describes how Indian children were able to teach themselves when provided nothing more than a computer.
  • Harvard University’s Eric Mazur has championed the concept of peer instruction, in which college students teach one another.
  • Dave introduces us to the concept of Junior Enterprise, a student-led consulting firm.
  • In the coaching world, there exists the notion of polarity management, in which distinctions are made between problems and unsolvable paradoxes.
  • Big Beacon is a social movement for transforming engineering education.
  • More information about the book can be found at wholenewengineer.org.
  • Catherine can be reached via email: catherinewhitney -=+ at +=- mac.com.
  • Listeners can contact Dave via email: deg -=+ at +=- bigbeacon.org. He is also active on Twitter and Facebook.
  • Finally, one can follow the happenings at Big Beacon via their website, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

Thanks to Dave Goldberg and Mark Somerville for use of their book cover image. Podcast theme music by Paul Stevenson.

Episode 63 — Engineering MBA

MBAMichael Lachman, who started his career as an aerospace engineer, leads us through the pros and cons of following up an engineering degree with an MBA.

  • Adam doesn’t have much interest in business, so he doesn’t think he’s a likely candidate to pursue an MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree.
  • Our guest for this episode is Michael Lachman, Founder and President of EyeQ Research, a consulting firm that provides ophthalmic medical device manufacturers with market research, industry insights, and business guidance.
  • As he was growing up, Michael was inspired by the efforts of the United States’ space program to land a man on the moon.
  • Michael started his career with Lockheed Corporation, working on feedback control systems.
  • Much of our guest’s work for Lockheed involved simulating spacecraft dynamics in software code, which he dutifully did by writing programs with the FORTRAN programming language.
  • Michael pursued a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, figuring that an MSME degree would provide him with a more diverse set of career opportunities.
  • Jeff and Michael worked together at Baxter Travenol (now Baxter International) for a short period of time, both having had their graduate design projects at Stanford funded by the company.
  • Despite wearing three-piece suits to work, Jeff and Michael found their work atmosphere in the mid-1980’s to be a far cry from the 1960’s era portrayed in the Mad Men television series.
  • Students are typically required to take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) as a condition of applying to a business school.
  • Our guest reports that going to business school on a part-time basis, while working a full-time job, is a difficult task.
  • Already possessing strong quantitative skills from his engineering coursework, Michael elected to attend Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, so that he could benefit from the school’s emphasis on marketing and case studies.
  • Certain employers place a great emphasis on where one obtains their business degree, so it’s a good idea to investigate corporate hiring practices before committing to any particular university’s MBA program.
  • MBA programs are often compared based on the rankings they receive from the magazine US News and World Report.
  • Universities conferred 74 percent more business degrees in the 2012-2013 school year than they did just eleven years prior. Brian wonders if this means that the MBA degree has been significantly devalued.
  • Receiving appropriate financial compensation for one’s enhanced skill set (in this case, through the acquisition of an MBA) often requires finding a new employer.
  • A typical MBA program has courses that fall into one of three broad categories: analytical, functional, and ethical.
  • Several years after receiving his MBA, Michael was hired by an investment banking firm.
  • The efficient market theory claims that, at any given time, all information about a firm and it’s financial prospects are immediately factored into the company’s stock price.
  • Michael covered the ophthalmic medical device as a research analyst. Ophthalmology deals with the anatomy, physiology and diseases of the eye.
  • In 2005, our guest started his own consulting firm; this allowed him to continue performing the market research he enjoyed, but without having to make stock recommendations.
  • The cost of MBA programs has skyrocketed in recent years, much as with other educational programs.
  • Opportunity costs reflect the value of foregone possibilities; that is, what benefits you could have enjoyed by pursuing the “next best” alternative.
  • Our guest suggests that engineers take a rational look at their career objectives, and the possible economic outcomes, before embarking on an MBA program.
  • Michael can be reached through the e-mail address found on his website.

Thanks to the Tulane Public Relations for the photo titled “Business Class.” Podcast theme music by Paul Stevenson.

Episode 54 — Brain on a Stick

brainstickBiochemical engineer Kai Zhuang walks us through the evolving relationships between technology and humanity, especially as it relates to engineering education, in this episode of The Engineering Commons podcast.

  • Jeff and Adam discuss the high salaries being offered to software engineers in Silicon Valley.
  • Adam notes that the U.S. Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) placed a value of $2.6 million on the economic loss suffered by society due to a traffic fatality in 1994. The current estimates (2013) are considerably higher, in the range of $9.1 million.
  • Our guest for this episode is Kai Zhuang, a biochemical and operations engineer who has an interest in engineering education.
  • Kai’s application to the University of Toronto’s National Scholarship Program was a little more avant garde than most, consisting of creative art pieces.
  • Biomedical engineering is a fairly new engineering discipline that is only now beginning to work out its own sub-fields and areas of emphasis.
  • Kai was frustrated with the rigid curriculum structure he encountered as an undergraduate engineering student.
  • In response to his frustrations, Kai produced a video about transforming engineering education.
  • Prior guest Dave Goldberg has described engineering education as being a math-science death march.
  • Kai mentions a presentation by Harvard physics professor Eric Mazur, titled Assessment: The Silent Killer of Learning.
  • The Force Concept Inventory (FCI) has been used by Eric Mazur to evaluate the effectiveness of physics instruction.
  • Our guest describes a Big Bang Theory episode in which physicists joke about a spherical chicken in a vacuum.
  • Our modern word engineer derives from the Latin ingenium, meaning a clever invention.
  • Jeff relates Montessori education methods to Kai’s suggestions for a more exploratory engineering curriculum.
  • The post-WWII Grinter report (1955) caused engineering to be treated more as a “science” in the United States.
  • Jeff compares producing interchangeable engineers to using the Play-Doh extruder toy.
  • Kai describes the difficulty of solving problems that involve complex systems.
  • A MOOC is a “massive open online course.”
  • The ongoing shift of engineering instructors from expert to coach has been examined by Dave Goldberg, founder of Big Beacon.
  • When looking for innovative approaches to engineering education, Kai was advised by filmmaker Ryan Varga to investigate York University in Toronto, and Olin College in Boston, Massachusetts.
  • This podcast is now a media affiliate with Big Beacon.
  • Kudos to PhD Comics creator Jorge Cham for the notion of brain on a stick.
  • A recent quote from software developer Dave Winer concerns the inevitability of serious problems resulting from our increasing dependence on a “fragile and insecure” internet system.
  • Kai is disappointed that systems thinking is almost completely missing from the engineering curriculum.
  • Our guest notes that most fears are “past pain extrapolated incorrectly into the future.”
  • BrenĂ© Brown has spoken eloquently about wholeheartedness and the power of vulnerability.
  • You can reach Kai via email at kai [dot] hua {dot} zhuang ++AT++ gmail [dot] com.

Thanks to Andrew Mason for his photograph titled “Inside.” Podcast theme music by Paul Stevenson.