Technical Graduates Research Articles

A consultation with EE faculty advisors: Good academic counseling can make all the difference to your college — And professional — Careers

Academic counseling has notoriously been one aspect of college life that is not given the attention it deserves. However, its importance for students cannot be overemphasized. Faculty advisors must not only insure that their students fulfill all the requirements for graduation, but also help them choose courses, including electives (technical and non-technical). Good advice, when taken, produces well-rounded technical graduates with multifaceted capabilities such as breadth of vision, the ability to analyze and solve problems, and sound communication and interpersonal skills. Bad advice (or good advice not taken) leads to opportunities lost and gaps in a person's education that may never be filled.

Social Demand and Technological Education

SUMMARY The objective of this investigation is to analyse the appropriateness of university technical training to the Production System, by trying to establish the relationship which exists between the supply of technical graduates on the part of the University and the demand for technical personnel on the part of firms in Catalonia and, at the same lime, to suggest possible courses of action in order to improve this level of appropriateness. Through the analysis of disparity between the demand and supply of qualified posts for each professional group (engineers, architects, etc.), and through questionnaires to students, professionals and firms, we have tried to determine the points of coincidence and divergence between the two social groups of suppliers and ‘demanders’. On the basis of prior information we analyse the causes of the lack of coincidence between necessities and supply: the degree of current relevance in study plans, levels of specialisation, the contracting processes, the role of the bodies...

A Survey of Technical Communication Students: Attitudes, Skills, and Aspirations

A survey of technical communication students at North Carolina State University has revealed information about students' perceptions of their communication skills and abilities, their immediate and long-range career plans, and what should be offered in a technical communication course. This information complements information gathered from surveys of business and industrial employers and of technical graduates on the job. The results of the survey suggest the desirability of increased technical communication course emphasis on oral reports and simulating professional communication activities. The survey also suggests specific areas for emphasis in the teaching of organization, format, and style.

Motivation and the Technical Graduates of the 80's

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Evaluation of a Bachelor's Program in Technical Communication: Results of a Questionnaire

This is an evaluation of the undergraduate technical communication major in the Department of Rhetoric, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, 1979. Three audiences received the questionnaire: technical communication graduates, potential employers, and members of the Society for Technical Communication. The questionnaire was designed to determine perceptions of technical communication courses, rank-ordering of competency areas, and listing courses that should be required for all technical communication majors. The results are reported and discussed in this article.

Dismantling the Tower of Babel in Computer Documentation

Whether to hire technical graduates or liberal arts graduates to train as technical writers has always been a problem in the computer industry. The technical graduate takes much longer to train as a writer, but he learns the technical subject much more quickly. The more complex the subject, the more likely the technical graduate is to be selected — and the longer it takes for him to become a skilled writer. How the problem was partially solved at NCR by the use of a restricted vocabulary is explained. An unsolved part of the problem is identified, and readers are urged to help find the solution.

Penn State Manpower Needs Survey

Current and projected manpower needs in acoustics have been deduced from data obtained through a recent survey. Based upon responses from more than 500 organizations, there are currently openings for employment as follows: technicians, 190; two-year technical graduates, 60; baccalaureate, 194; master's, 152; doctorate, 199. The data have been analyzed and results will be presented in a manner designed to delineate the needs in the physical sciences, engineering, speech and hearing, psychology, and other fields, for each of the above levels of education. The results will encompass projected estimated requirements in addition to current new position needs for one, two, and five years hence. The results also delineate the current and projected needs in accordance with types of organization, including industrial, government laboratory, government administrative, university, consulting firm, and foundation. Although the data obtained, and consequently the resulting analyses, of such an undertaking can never be completely accurate, the results presented here are considered to be the most comprehensive and accurate obtained to date for the field of acoustics.

The Managementality Gap

While analyzing situations before making vital decisions has been practiced by realistic politicians since Machiavelli's time, business managers constantly make decisions with inadequate information and under the pressures of insufficient time. Too few managers have reached the point where they rigorously analyze alternate consequences before choosing one solution over another. A prime problem is the different mental attitude of those involved-today's top executives and the more recent management-oriented technical graduates. The potential contributions of management science to the business process are limited by the gap between the mentality of the practitioners of management science and currently successful managers. The challenge of developing certain interactions, mutual trust, and commitment is offered to both sides. Melding of the disparate talents of the charismatic intuitive leader, the management scientist, and the behavioral scientist is needed to help close the "managementality gap."

Interest Patterns of Male Trade and Industrial and Collegiate Technical Graduates

Vocational Guidance QuarterlyVolume 15, Issue 1 p. 57-60 Interest Patterns of Male Trade and Industrial and Collegiate Technical Graduates RONALD G. TAYLOR, RONALD G. TAYLOR Assistant Professor UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA / FERRIS STATE COLLEGE Ronald G. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Student Counseling Bureau, The University of MinnesotaSearch for more papers by this authorSTEPHEN B. BONDY, STEPHEN B. BONDY Psychometrist UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA / FERRIS STATE COLLEGE Stephen B. Bondy is a Psychometrist in the Counseling Center, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, Michigan.Search for more papers by this author RONALD G. TAYLOR, RONALD G. TAYLOR Assistant Professor UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA / FERRIS STATE COLLEGE Ronald G. Taylor is an Assistant Professor in the Student Counseling Bureau, The University of MinnesotaSearch for more papers by this authorSTEPHEN B. BONDY, STEPHEN B. BONDY Psychometrist UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA / FERRIS STATE COLLEGE Stephen B. Bondy is a Psychometrist in the Counseling Center, Ferris State College, Big Rapids, Michigan.Search for more papers by this author First published: September 1966 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-585X.1966.tb01159.x AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Volume15, Issue1September 1966Pages 57-60 RelatedInformation

Interest Patterns of Male Technical and Commerce Graduates

Interest Patterns of Male Technical and Commerce Graduates

Marketing Bridges the Maker-User Gap

In the decade following World War II, marketing in the chemical industry played a secondary role to research, engineering, and manufacturing as the industry concentrated its efforts on building ., plants and making products to satisfy the large pent-up demand. In short, for a prolonged period a seller's market existed. During this period the industry encouraged promising technical graduates to pursue careers in research, manufacturing, and engineering. Out of this grew the image that a technical graduate entering marketing was less competent and less important than his colleagues who pursued careers where they could use their technical training. In the mid-fifties, the chemical industry moved from a seller's to a buyer's market. Customers began to demand better products, more technical service, and lower prices. Business was awarded to companies that were perceptive in understanding their customer's needs and skillful in using the entire resources of the company in filling these needs. The situation cal...

Improved Management of Military Development Programs Needed to Conserve Our Engineering Manpower

The future security of this nation requires continued technological superiority in weapons and weapons systems. To maintain this technical lead in the face of our already inadequate supply of scientists and engineers is a matter of grave concern. The outlook for increasing the supply of technical graduates to meet these demands over the next decade is not good. It is essential, therefore, that we utilize our valuable engineering resources with maximum efficiency. Certain aspects of military program management are resulting in waste of engineering resources. Among these are the requirement for multiple technical proposals prior to selection of a developmental contractor, requirements for unnecessary engineering records, failure to make continued use of trained engineering teams in specialized design areas, and duplication of engineering effort by a prime weapon-system contractor and his subcontractors. It also appears that existing military procurement policies and procedures are tending to create a philosophy of ``mass engineering'' which is not only wasteful of technical resources, but is having an adverse effect upon the morale of engineers and the engineering profession.

CORROSION COMMENTARY

HARWELL VISIT. The Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell is now ten years old and recently held its first series of Open Days for the international and technical Press and university graduates. We were fortunate enough to visit this vast conglomeration of buildings, covering 300 acres, and see something of the work being carried out by hundreds of scientists on research and development work for all aspects of atomic energy directed towards civilian application.

Technical Graduates in the British Armed Services

Technical Graduates in the British Armed Services

An Actual Account of What We Have Done To Reduce Our Labor Turnover

I wish to speak from the standpoint of the average employer of the need of an employment department; and, to make myself entirely clear, I wish to point out conditions as they existed in our factory, and it is safe to presume in the average factory. First, I want to state that our firm is over sixty years old, and has built up a reputation for making high quality tools during all of that period. This is not intended as an advertising statement, but is to give you some idea of the class of work we do, the problems we must solve, and further, to have you feel that our employes producing such work, must be at least of average intelligence. You will thus understand that the problems we met were not due to the fact that we had a lot of underpaid, ignorant employes. In other words, our problems are about the same as the problems you have in your own factory. I also want to impress upon you the fact that while we are sixty years old, we are also sixty years young. I am the oldest man in the executive department of our organization and I am not much over forty years old. We have the reputation of being progressive along all lines of executive control and have established a record for efficiency along general factory lines. We have technical graduates who have been employed in our various departments to keep us fully abreast of the times in all branches of research work, especially in the development of steel. We have a cost system in our factory that was installed at the expense of thousands of dollars, and is to my mind the most efficient I have ever seen because it produces results, and presents them to us monthly. These points are brought out so that you will realize that we are not held back by any old fogy ideas on the part of our executives, and to bring home to you the appalling fact that in an or51

The attitude of the technical school toward the profession of electrical engineering

The technical school is primarily an educational institution. The purpose is not to teach trades of any order, nor is it directly to produce business or professional men. The technical school sustains a vital relation to the profession of electrical engineering, and it cannot succeed without an understanding of that relation. On the other hand, the profession cannot use technical graduates efficiently without a knowledge of the purpose underlying their training. That both school and profession are coming to understand their relation is made evident by many signs. Among these may be mentioned the development of graduate-apprentice courses by manufacturing and operating companies, the reduction of manual training and the increase of scientific training in the schools, the formation of employment committees by both companies and schools, and the cordial relations existing between practitioners and teachers. From the first the technical school has stood for the encouragement of useful studies with a scientific foundation. At first undoubtedly too much emphasis was laid upon the practical features of the curriculum, and the attempt was made to do in the laboratory what can only be done in the factory. This and other faults are being corrected by the study of industrial conditions, and the work of the school is being increasingly appreciated by the profession generally.