Engineering Leadership Research Articles

Pedagogical approaches for facilitating engineering leadership development.

This article describes transformative, impactful pedagogical practices that engage students in the process of leadership development. We share practical examples of instructional strategies and facilitation techniques from curricular and co-curricular initiatives.

Diversity of engineering leadership program design.

This article outlines the diversity of engineering leadership programs by comparing origin stories, definitions, program structure, instructional strategies, research, and program evaluation approaches of seven North American engineering leadership programs.

Case Study #2: James Madison University

The Madison Engineering Leadership Development program seeks to enhance the technical mastery required in engineering by blending it with the value-added skills of building character, understanding core values, working in/leading teams, relationship management and inspiring others.

Contextualizing engineering leadership development in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines recognize the need for leadership development, but the lack of a professionally endorsed model has led to a patchwork of programmes across the nation, each with its unique brand of skills development. Leadership programmes in six diverse STEM fields are included.

Engineering Leadership Development: Contribution of Professional Skills to Engineering Undergraduate Students’ Leadership Self-efficacy

<p style="text-align:justify">Corresponding to industry trends and changes in engineering education accreditation criteria, non-technical professional skills training is now seen as central to baccalaureate engineering education. Beyond simply developing good managers in the engineering fields, engineering educators have adopted a goal to prepare engineering students to be leaders who can provide vision to their organizations with strong ethical standards. This study investigated engineering undergraduate students’ leadership efficacy development associated with such professional skills as self-awareness, global competence, ethical awareness, creativity, and teamwork skills. Responding to an online survey, 247 engineering undergraduates who were enrolled in an engineering leadership course participated in this study. Results of this study indicated that there are positive associations among the five professional skills (e.g., self-awareness, ethical awareness, global competency, creativity, and teamwork skills), and engineering leadership self-efficacy for engineering undergraduate students. The five professional skills (self-awareness, ethical awareness, global competency, creativity, and teamwork skills) predicted 54% of the overall variance of engineering leadership self-efficacy.</p>

A Statistical Case Study for the Components of Spiritual and Charismatic Leadership in Reverse Engineering based on Voice of Customer in Iran Khodro Company

Nowadays, vending is the most important pillar of a production set. The positive and significant points of the manufactured parts are attained by interviewing with the customer, sending a questionnaire to the customer, testing the market, investigating the quality and reliability of new products, probing the reports and product quality of competitors. Aimed at predicting the type of leadership in reverse engineering, based on “Voice of Customer” (VOC), between the Iran Khodro Company’s (IKC) managers (case study of Peugeot 405 brake pump shell), the present study was conducted. Using descriptive-correlation research method, about 90 managers were randomly selected in several categories according to gender, age and years of service, proportional to the size of each category. Three questionnaires of “Oregon and Kanowski Organizational Citizenship Behavior” (OKOCB), “Fry Spiritual Leadership” (FSL), and researcher-made “Charismatic Leadership” (CL) were utilized to collect the research data. To measure the reliability rate using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, this item was obtained for all three questionnaires of the OKOCB, FSL and CL behavior (α = 0.92, 0.81 and 0.85) respectively. Collecting the data, they were analyzed using multiple regression analysis and based on the research hypotheses. The results indicated that there is a positive and significant relationship between the dimensions of SL and organizational citizenship behavior, and also between the CL and the organizational citizenship behavior. The results of structural equation modeling also showed that SL with a path coefficient 0.7 is able to affect overall quality management (t ≥ 1.96, p≤ 0.05).

Research on innovative model of engineering leadership development based on action learning

At present, talent competition is becoming a focus of international competition. Both developed countries and large developing countries regard scientific and technological human resources as the core factor of strategic resources and enhancing national competitiveness, and vigorously strengthen the capacity building of scientific and technological human resources. Engineering leadership training is a new direction in modern higher education. Enterprises require graduates not only to be experts in design and analysis, but also to have leadership, with excellent communication, expression, adaptation, coordination and management characteristics. In recent years, the state's investment in industrial science and technology activities has maintained rapid growth, the national financial science and technology appropriation has increased steadily, the enterprise's investment in science and technology has maintained rapid growth, and the expenditure on scientific research and experimental development has continuously refreshed historical levels. Various organizations in China are also gradually applying action learning for leadership development. From the effect of action learning and traditional methods on leadership development, this paper discusses the innovation and educational measures of leadership development based on action learning.

Degree Apprenticeship Education for Future Engineering Leaders: Developing Reflective Practice with Work-based Learning.

Degree Apprenticeship Education for Future Engineering Leaders: Developing Reflective Practice with Work-based Learning.

Program attributes for developing and supporting STEM teacher leaders

ABSTRACT This study shares findings from a review of eight science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teacher leader programs across the United States. With limited empirical research in STEM teacher leadership, the goal of the study is to build the research knowledge about STEM teacher leader conceptualization and structure. Results from this descriptive case study showed that the programs either focused on developing teacher leaders or supporting teacher leaders. Programs focused on developing teacher leaders typically were programs working with teachers new to the idea of teacher leadership whereas programs focused on supporting teacher leaders tended to work with teachers who had some prior experience with teacher leadership. Using a constant comparative analysis, additional results revealed all programs included emphasis on professional development, graduate coursework, networking, mentoring, and sharing knowledge with differing degrees of prominence depending on if the program’s focus was on developing or supporting teacher leaders. Implications include specific program curricula that may be implemented in STEM teacher leader programs.

Underrepresentation of Women STEM Leaders: Twelve Women on Different Journeys Using Their Voices to Shape the World through Science

This study examined the conditions contributing to the underrepresentation of women leaders in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. It was a qualitative phenomenological study of twelve women with twelve unique journeys. The women included secondary educators, postsecondary university professors, and professional STEM field careerists. This study examined the experiences of women in STEM through storytelling and identified four common themes shared by the twelve participants: a) shaping of mental exploration; b) math efficacy; c) self-discovery through problem-solving regarding why and how things work; and d) connection to an encouraging learning community. While numerous studies have uncovered systemic causes of underrepresentation, this qualitative inquiry sought to learn about the experiences of women in STEM through their own voices and therefore advance qualitative studies in this area. The study participants were limited to women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics identified through convenience and snowball sampling in the geographical study area. This study aims to reveal how self-efficacy takes shape during adolescence and, in turn, influences the persistence of women leaders in STEM education and careers.

“We’ve Always Been Engineers:” Indigenous Student Voices on Engineering and Leadership Identities

Background: How do Indigenous engineering students describe their engineering leadership development? The field of engineering has made only slow and modest progress at increasing the participation of Indigenous people; an identity-conscious focus on leadership in engineering may help connect the practice of engineering with Indigenous students’ motivations and values. Methods: This study utilized a grounded theory qualitative approach to understand how Indigenous engineering students at a U.S.-based university experience engineering leadership. We explored the experiences of four Indigenous engineering students through one interview and one focus group. Results: Students pointed out how Indigenous peoples had long engaged in engineering work before contact with European settlers, and they saw an opportunity for leadership in applying their engineering knowledge in ways that uplifted their home communities. Conclusion: In addition to ways that engineering programs can better support Indigenous students who aspire to become practicing engineers, our study pointed to new directions engineering programs could take to frame engineering work as providing a toolkit to improve one’s community to leverage a wider set of motivations for entering engineering among many different communities underrepresented in engineering, including Indigenous students.

The influence of engineering competition team participation on students' leadership identity development

AbstractBackgroundEngineering competition teams (ECTs) allow college students to learn about and practice leadership within a technical domain, yet we know little about the mechanisms by which leadership development occurs within these teams. This paper explores how ECT participation contributes to students' leadership identity development (LID).PurposeThis paper addresses the following research questions: RQ1: How does the ECT experience contribute to students' relational LID? RQ2: What other factors influence ECT participants' LID? RQ3: Does the ECT experience provide opportunities for LID that are different from those provided by other experiences? DesignThis paper reports the second phase of a mixed‐methods study. ECT members participated in individual semistructured interviews. Transcripts were analyzed via an interpretivist approach using deductive and constant comparative methods. The analysis employed the LID model as the primary theoretical construct.ResultsECTs contributed to most participants' LID. Factors affecting the extent of development included project complexity, team practices related to the claiming and granting of a leadership identity, positional leadership experience, involvement with other organizations, and preconceptions of leadership. Compared with other experiences, ECTs placed more emphasis on leadership based in expertise. Technical competence was considered a key attribute of ECT leaders.ConclusionsECTs enhanced the LID of most participants, helping them understand leadership as a relational process. The LID model offers promise for designing engineering leadership development programs.

Development of Criticality in Thought: A Conceptual Framework for Online Student Discussion Forums in Higher Education

Assessing student understanding and extending student learning beyond the face-to-face or synchronous online lesson is commonly done with the use of online discussion forums. However, the challenge reported by tutors of higher education has always been the lack of active participation and critical engagement by students unless the task is graded formally. Researchers have been investigating various approaches to facilitate effective learning experiences such that students are motivated to engage others when they are tasked to partake in such asynchronous discussions. This paper explores how I sought to engage my Engineering undergraduate students, reading a critical thinking and writing module taught in a blended learning environment, in online discussion forums with the adoption of the Paul-Elder critical thinking framework. The aim was to develop higher levels of criticality in thought in students’ forum responses, while demonstrating the application of the critical thinking tools, such that they were able to collaboratively construct knowledge and deepen their conceptual understanding of Engineering leadership. Results of the analysis found that students were engaged in spontaneous dialogic discussions in the form of repeated extended posts published in the online discussion forums. Furthermore, analysis of student critical reflection essays also confirmed that the online discussion forums, with a deliberate use of the tools of the framework, had contributed to their development of critical thinking skills to deepen their understanding. This paper concludes with a recommendation for tutors of higher education to make the assessment of students’ critical reflection or critical thinking skills visible for students with a proposed conceptual framework for online discussion forums.

Robotic Football: Developing Engineering Leaders Through Competition

Design is a fundamental component in various engineering curricula. Programs across the nation teach this component via design projects in different courses, culminating in a capstone design course in the final year. While these projects may achieve the goal of teaching the use of mathematics and sciences to meet design objectives and constraints, they are limited in terms of the team size, scope of the project, and diversity of team members.

Engineering leadership in a Chinese industrial context: An exploration using the four capabilities model

AbstractBackgroundOver the past two decades, state policies and industrial associations have challenged engineering educators to expand the training of future engineers beyond technical competencies to the broader domain of professional skills development, with one key aspect being engineering leadership.PurposeThis study adopted the four capabilities (4‐Cap) model, which views leadership as a set of four capabilities—sensemaking, relating, visioning, and inventing—as a conceptual framework to explore and operationalize the core skills and attributes required for engineers in a Chinese industrial context.MethodA qualitative study was conducted through semistructured interviews with 23 practicing engineers from different industries (e.g., IT, automobile) and various types of companies (e.g., state‐owned companies, foreign‐invested enterprises) in China. Using a thematic analysis approach, themes relating to engineering leadership within and beyond the 4‐Cap model were reported.ResultsQualitatively, more themes emerged for the dimension of inventing than for the other dimensions. The themes and patterns suggested the central role of inventing, which predominantly represented an innovative process of design‐oriented problem‐solving and project management closely associated with themes in the other dimensions. Therefore, the 4‐Cap model was revisited and revised by highlighting the core construct of inventing.ConclusionThis study enriches the current understanding of engineering leadership, especially in a Chinese industrial context. The results emphasize the importance of design, problem‐solving, and the social component in the daily work of engineering professionals. Suggestions for educational practices and future research, along with a call for more empirical data on engineering leadership in China and from a global context, are proposed.

ENGINEERING LEADERS RETAIN THEIR TECHNICAL IDENTITIES: LIVING THE SOCIOTECHNICAL DUALITY

In this qualitative study, we investigate the ways engineering leaders across different industry sectors conceive of their own professional identities, including those who work in less engineering-intensive sectors such as financial and public services. Our findings are consistent with previous research that rejects adichotomizing of engineering identity into distinct technical and social dimensions along technical and managerial career paths [4], [11]. Drawing directly from the experiences of 29 engineering leaders, our results suggest that engineers in management and leadership, even those outside of traditional engineering industry sectors, retain technical dimensions of their professional identities. By challenging the assumption that engineers must abandon their technical identities in order to embrace leadership work, findings of this study can demonstrate to students and early career engineers they need not resist leadership for fear of losing their engineering identities.

Building the Engineering Mindset: Developing Sustainable Leadership and Management Competencies in First Year Engineering

The broad inclusion of sustainable engineering leadership and management concepts are increasinglyrecognized as necessary to ensure the relevance of an engineering education in a rapidly shifting world.Engineering leadership and management are integral to the engineering mindset and necessary to addressthe complex engineering problems faced by society. Examples of these complex problems can be seen in theUN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by all UN member states, including Canada, in 2015[1]. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) identifies the need for strong non-technicalskills with a majority of the Graduate Attributes focusing on non-technical skills such as communication,teamwork, ethics and lifelong learning [2]. The UN SDGs are well aligned with the CEAB GraduateAttributes [3] and could be very effectively operationalized in engineering programs through the use of asustainable engineering leadership and management model.

Can ARIA save UK innovation?

Engineering leadership will be key to the success of the UK's planned ARIA research agency writes Royal Academy of Engineering President Sir Jim McDonald FREng FRSE

Preface

It is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 2020 11th Asia Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (ACMAE) on December 25-27th, 2020, which is planned to held in Chengdu, China. However, due to the spread of COVID-19, many countries have strict restrictions to travel aboard; Meanwhile, the safety of the participants is always the priority. We made a hard decision to hold the conference online. ACMAE 2020 is dedicated to issues related to the advancement of all Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering topics.Following the successful conference in Bangkok, Thailand, last year in 2019, the conference focus is still on Asia’s research, achievements, markets, industry, etc. The technological innovation advances at an ever dramatic pace, we believe that face-to-face communication is of great essential, and virtually we expect that to be maintained even if we cannot socialize outside of sessions. With a solid reputation, ACMAE is where you will meet and network with engineering leaders, business innovators, researchers, academics and policy makers from across the globe. Do not miss the chance; hope to see you at ACMAE 2021.ACMAE conference was held online by Zoom tools, after getting familiar with the functions of the Zoon on the first day, 3 speakers-Prof. Konstantin Lukin, Prof. Antonio De Maio and Prof. Ramesh K. Agarwal showed up to give a 45 mins keynote speeches, and then 8 parallel sessions were held to share and discuss the research of all the participants in specific field. Each presenter has 15 minutes for presentation, including 12 minutes presentation and 3 minutes for Q&A part. More than 60 participants from China, Italy, Ukraine, Russia, and Thailand joined the conference.The proceedings present a selection from papers submitted to the conference from universities, research institutes and industries. 59 papers were finally selected from the submitted papers. As always, competition and acceptance rates are not high, all authors should be very satisfied with their success. The papers selected depended on their quality and their relevancy to the conference. The volume tends to present to the readers the recent advances in the field of Aerospace Mechatronics and Avionics Systems, Mechanical Engineering in Aerospace and various related areas, such as Aerospace Communications, Aerospace Engineering and Management and Electronic Systems, etc.We would like to thank all the authors who have contributed to this volume and also to reviewers, speakers, chairpersons, sponsors and all the conference participants for their support to ACMAE 2020. Wish to see all of you in next year conference.Professor Ian R. McAndrew PhD FRAeSConference ChairACMAE 2020List of Conference Committee, Advisory Chairs, Conference Chairs, Program Co-Chairs, Steering Co-chairs, Publication Chair, International Publicity Co-chairs, Technical Committee Members are available in the pdf.

Measuring Curriculum Effectiveness for Developing Principled Leaders in an Undergraduate Engineering Program

An objective of most undergraduate engineering curricula is to prepare students to solve challenging problems by applying technical knowledge and original ideas and then turn those into practical applications. The demand for principled engineering leaders amplifies the importance of integrating ethical leadership and decision making as a core element of curriculum design. This study seeks to provide insights into the research question of whether the use of an integrated leadership and ethics training program can improve an engineering student’s ability to make ethical engineering decisions as measured by the National Society of Professional Engineers Code of ethics practice exam.