Developing civil engineering leaders at the United States Coast Guard Academy

Abstract

Current ABET criteria expects the curricular content of engineering programs to include a general education component that is consistent with their objectives. This is usually accomplished by having students take non-technical courses in humanities and social science. The benefits of having engineering students take courses in humanities and social sciences cannot be overstated as these courses strongly promote personal, political (public policy) and professional leadership development. The United States Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) has been training engineers to serve as leaders in the Coast Guard and beyond for the past 100 years. The USCGA's Civil Engineering curriculum fosters leadership development through a breadth of required core courses in the humanities, science, engineering, mathematics, professional maritime studies, organizational behavior, management, leadership and law. This combination of core courses and non-academic activities including military and physical education training has been proven successful in providing students with opportunities to develop leadership and management skills required for engineering practice. The authors discuss the leadership approach used at USCGA that could be adopted by other academic institution as they strive to develop civil engineering leaders.