Educating Engineers for the New Market

(page 2 of 2)

CMU students are working on production planning and cost analysis with other students and faculty for a tunnel being built in Israel, a light-rail system in Turkey, and a low-income housing project in Brazil. There are two faculty members in the programs at universities in each of those countries. Teams in different nations communicate via telephone, Web-conferencing, instant messaging, videoconferencing, and electronic white boards.

Learning to Adapt

The idea for a program to "teach students how to operate in a globalized way," says Soibelman, evolved from discussions with top executives and managers at U.S. firms involved in major construction projects. "They would say, 'I have to build a project in Brazil for General Motors (GM), but it is very difficult for my managers in the U.S. to know about local labor productivity and so on,'" he says. Traditionally, the only way to resolve such challenges is to form a joint venture with a local construction firm. "That is when the real problems start. We use the same technology and structural designs, but communication and understanding the culture are a problem." Soibelman says, "our students are now learning about all these things the hard way."

Meanwhile, the engineering school is planning the to launch a minor in innovation management for undergraduates next fall. And eventually, Khosla hopes to weave such topics into the entire curriculum.

The big question is whether shifting America's engineering workforce from routine to multidimensional skills will really translate into more jobs at home. Sure, corporate executives constantly complain about the shortage of engineers with the right skills and always predict big engineering shortages if the U.S. were to restrict globalization. But will they really hire as many of these Renaissance engineers to make up for the jobs lost to offshoring?

Recent studies from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering—which also offers a new master's program that teaches business and innovation—suggest that the job market for U.S. engineering graduates remains soft. MIT's Lester, whose center has various studies underway looking at the implications of globalization on U.S. engineering jobs, says it remains almost impossible to say whether the trend will cause a net loss or net gain for the U.S. "Not only do I not know the answer 10 years from now, but I don't know the answer today," he says. "And I don't think anyone else does."

Staying Positive

From Khosla's perspective at CMU, which has 1,600 engineering undergraduates and 900 master's and doctoral students, the future of the profession appears promising. Most of the school's graduates are receiving several job offers, he says, and salaries are rising. "If there is excess capacity of engineers in the U.S., I have a hard time seeing it," he says. Interest in engineering careers also is strong. Following a slump from the tech bust, enrollment of freshman engineers is up by 20% this year—and at least 85% of them are U.S. citizens or holders of green cards. "I don't see any sign that the pool is shrinking or that we are scraping the bottom of the barrel for applicants," he says.

Of course, CMU is regarded as an elite school, he notes, so it is hard to say what is happening at secondary schools. As for reports that companies are not hiring many U.S. engineers—even though their chief executives keep warning of serious shortages—Khosla has a simple explanation: What top corporate executives say and what their own human resources departments do often differ. While CEOs talk of the need for broadly trained engineers capable of driving innovation, managers who do the hiring still focus on salaries—so they are adding most of their bodies abroad. "The CEOs and chief technology officers have a broad vision about innovation and strategy," he says. "But there is a lack of communication inside the company regarding what kind of people they should hire."

That communication gap will need to close if the current efforts at U.S. universities to reinvent engineering education are to pay off.

Engardio is an international senior writer for BusinessWeek .