Newsletter Archives; Fall 1997

This was the third year for the Fellowship Program, which selects ten participants to spend eight weeks at Boeing studying the key elements of industrial competitiveness and the practice of engineering. Fellows gain a network of contacts within Boeing and among their faculty peers which can form the basis of long-term relationships.

The program began with a workshop on "Industrial Competitiveness and the Practice of Engineering." This workshop described the environment in which engineering of the future will be practiced and explored topics such as the importance of processes and process improvement; the role of people skills in engineering in a team environment; economics and economic interactions in engineering practice; and cycle time, cost, variation, and customer satisfaction as key measures.

During custom-tailored "shadow assignments," each Fellow followed engineering professionals in the field of the Fellow's specialty. Professor Kumar spent most of his time in Everett, getting an overview of the design and manufacturing processes in the 777 program.

The Program concluded with a second workshop in which Fellows discussed the practice of engineering and the attributes which best prepare engineering graduates for rewarding and productive careers. The Fellows developed recommendations to bring to colleagues at their respective universities, which are summarized in the paper "Engineering Education and Pracitice in the Era of Global Competition," to be presented at the ASEE conference in Seattle in June 1998.