Engineers Learn

“Soft Skills the

Hard Way”:
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Planting a Seed
of Leadership in
Engineering Classes
SANJEEV KUMAR, P.E., F.ASCE; AND

J. KENT HSIAO, P.E., S.E., M.ASCE

ABSTRACT: Today’s competitive global market and changing work environment demand
that engineers possess “soft skills” in addition to technical skills, and they must be able to
understand project goals and have the ability to accomplish them with available re-
sources. Currently, engineers learn leadership and management skills while working—
learning “soft skills the hard way.” In order to meet the demands of this changing world,
engineering programs are challenged to come up with innovative ways to teach classes so
that graduates are prepared to take on the challenges twenty-first century engineers face.
This article provides a summary of engineering leadership and its relationship to engi-
neering education, problem-based learning, and service-learning pedagogies as they re-
late to engineering education, and an example of implementing these pedagogies in an
engineering course.

E
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very engineering organization, big or others to do what he or she wants them to do with a feeling
small, needs leaders and managers for that they enjoy doing it. Before discussing engineering leader-
the success of the organization and ship any further, it is important to differentiate “leader” from
projects they execute. A quick search “manager.” A basic definition of a manager could be summa-
for a definition of leader reveals that rized as “a person who works effectively with others to accom-
there are several hundred definitions plish set goals.” We believe that it is a myth that leaders are
thatcurrentlyexist.Abasicdefinitionofaleadercouldbesum- born. Instead, leadership could be “born out” by providing
marized as a person who has the ability to inspire and motivate proper education and training. Although education for leader-

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 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
ship starts at home during childhood, the seed for producing neers for twenty-first century demands. Preparing engineer-
engineering leaders must be sowed in basic engineering ing students to have sound technical skills is no doubt the
classes. However, leadership is rarely discussed in traditional primary responsibility of an engineering curriculum. How-
engineering courses. In order to be a true engineering leader, ever, in today’s competitive global market and changing
engineering students must possess technical and nontechnical work environment, which demand that engineers must be
共soft兲skills,whichwouldgivethemanedgeintheworkplace. able to understand the project goals and accomplish them
Engineers are frequently overlooked for senior manage- with the available resources, engineering programs are chal-
mentpositions;instead,individualswithMBAsorJDs,whose lenged to come up with innovative ways to teach classes so
education better prepared them in communication, leader- that the graduates are prepared to take over the challenges
ship,andmanagementskills,areoftenawardedthesepositions facing twenty-first century engineers, and to make these pro-
共Summers et al. 2004兲. Engineering Criteria 2000 共ABET grams consistent with ABET requirements. The National
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1998兲, the accreditation criteria established by the Accredita- Academy of Engineers 共NAE 2004兲 emphasizes that to
tion Board for Engineering and Technology 共ABET兲, places maintain the nation’s economic competitiveness and improve
significant emphasis on preparing graduates so that they can the quality of life for people around the world, engineering
successfully enter into and continue the practice of engineer- educators and curriculum developers must anticipate dra-
ing, and it is the responsibility of the institution to satisfy these matic changes in engineering practice and adapt their pro-
criteria. Therefore, participation of the industry and/or profes- grams accordingly. Arciszewski 共2006兲 considered the lack of
sionalsinengineeringeducationmustbeanintegralpartofthe engineering leadership in civil engineering as a crisis and
engineering curriculum 共Kumar 2000兲. Professional practice urged civil engineers to use the present challenges to change
can be defined as the act of working firsthand with situations the profession to meet the new demands.
for customers by using a combination of highly specialized Almost every engineering program in the Unites States
knowledge and skills that are obtained through study, train- has a capstone design course that is designed, as the name
ing, and experience 共Aldridge 1994兲. Professional practice suggests, to “capsulize” what students have learned in other
requires that graduates from a four-year engineering curricu- classes. Unless the course is designed and taught to accom-
lum are capable of setting up and solving problems that do not plish its real objectives, it gives a false sense of completeness.
haveanswersgivenatthebackofbooks共Kumar2004兲. Often the instructors of this course have little or no project
management experience in professional practice. As a result,
ENGINEERING LEADERSHIP graduates lack the education and experience to learn the ba-
AND ENGINEERING CURRICULUM sics of project management and leadership. Moreover, a
We have combined professional practice experience of over broader concern is whether it is fair to believe just one course
thirty years, and have realized that engineers generally focus to be a panacea.
on technical details and often overlook the broader picture. Let’s take a careful look at ABET’s Engineering Criteria
However, today’s engineers are asked to do a lot more than 2000 共1998, points “d” through “j”兲 and compare them to
just apply the scientific knowledge to solve practical prob- the most common dimensions of an engineering leader.
lems. In a survey conducted by EE Times 共Bellinger 2002兲,
77 percent of the engineers reported they have acted as team d. Ability to function on multidisciplinary teams;
leaders and 83 percent have written reports for internal use. e. Ability to identify, formulate, and solve engineering
Currently, engineers hone their leadership and management problems;
skills while at work 共i.e., learning “soft skills the hard way”兲. f. Understanding of professional and ethical responsibil-
Traditional engineering classes prepare undergraduate and ity;
graduate students to master their technical skills in a specific g. Ability to communicate effectively;
engineering field without much time allotted for discussion h. Ability to understand the impact of engineering solu-
and for leadership practice. Bellinger 共2002兲 reported that tions in a global and societal context;
engineering curriculums at many universities are so demand- i. Recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage
ing technically that students don’t have the time or inclina- in, lifelong learning; and
tion to pursue business courses. j. Knowledge of contemporary issues.
Engineering curriculums all over the United States are Following are the most common dimensions of an engineer-
under pressure to maintain a specific number of graduating
ing leader. These are not listed in order of importance, but
hours, leaving little or no room to add new courses. There-
rather as an attempt to map them against ABET’s aforemen-
fore, to obtain soft skills, either the students should take
tioned criteria.
additional courses 共something they are not apt to do because
of the time and money commitments兲, or the existing engi- 1. Ability to build successful teams and work with team
neering curricula need to be modified to prepare the engi- members to accomplish project goals;

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 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
2. Ability to motivate, inspire, respect, and reward the
team members;
3. Ability to evaluate potential risk and willingness to
take calculated risk for the success of the project;
4. Thorough understanding of duties of an engineer in-
cluding service to the community;
5. Sound technical skills within his/her area of expertise,
and ability to identify and recruit other team mem-
bers with skills needed for successful completion of
the project;
6. Clear vision of potential outcomes and ability to strat-
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egize to achieve them;

7. Value transparency, honesty, integrity, and high ethi-
cal standards in decision making;
8. Ability to communicate effectively, both written and
oral;
9. Ability to listen carefully and learn from others;
10. Understand the importance of responsiveness to his/
her clients, both internal and external; and
11. Empathy for what he or she does.
Careful review of this information suggests that ABET has Figure 1. Comparison of problem-based learning 共PBL兲
placed significant emphasis on preparing engineering stu- and traditional methods 关IMSA 共2004兲, reprinted with
dents as leaders. Keeping in mind the limitation on adding permission兴
new courses in an engineering curriculum and to avoid de-
pendence on only the capstone design course, it is obvious
to the university and let him pick his own way” 关cited in
that the only choice is to modify the existing courses such
Couttolenc 共2000兲兴.
that a healthy seed of leadership is planted during engineer-
Problem-based learning 共PBL兲 has been used successfully
ing education—one able to produce successful leaders with
by other educators, particularly medical educators, to train
appropriate nourishment to strengthen the roots during pro-
medical care providers. However, use of PBL in engineering
fessional practice.
education can best be regarded as at infancy. PBL is a train-
ing method that challenges students to “think and learn” by
PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING solving real-world problems while working in groups and
AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION learning from each other. Most of the components of ABET
Traditionally, engineering courses have been taught in a Engineering Criteria 2000 could be satisfied by teaching engi-
straightforward way, starting with a lot of definitions, basic neering classes, particularly engineering design classes, by us-
concepts, and methods for solving well-defined problems, ing the PBL approach. Fig. 1 shows how PBL compares
which in most cases are simplified and idealized 共Sallfors and with more traditional instruction 共IMSA 2004兲. Table I also
Sallfors 2000兲. In most of the basic civil engineering courses, shows the difference between PBL instruction and traditional
the instructors provide just the necessary parameters to solve lecture-based instruction.
an idealized problem that includes a step-by-step procedure
to efficiently solve the problem. On one hand this is neces- SERVICE LEARNING IN ENGINEERING
sary to teach the students basic principles and formulas CLASSROOMS
needed to make judgments. On the other hand, this way of It is a proven fact that students learn best when they receive
teaching is not sufficient to produce engineering leaders education complemented with experiments or hands-on
共Kumar 2004兲. training. Traditionally, pedagogies based on hands-on train-
Graham states that “if someone asks me how to get ing include at least one or a combination of laboratory ex-
from my office here in the university to a consultant’s office periments, undergraduate research experiences, PBL, intern-
in downtown, I can do two things: I can tell him to get ships, and cooperative experiences. Instructors can also use
to University Crescent, turn right on Bishop Grandin Bou- field trips to provide practical applications to engineering
levard, then north of St. Mary’s Street, etc. That is, I education. This approach to engineering education has
can teach him the path to follow. Alternatively, I can show helped students tremendously; however, it still does not help
him on a map where the consultant’s office is located relative students develop soft skills and sufficient confidence to inde-

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Leadership Manage. Eng., 2007, 7(1): 18-23

 Table 1. Difference between Problem-Based Learning „PBL… Instruction and Traditional
Lecture-Based Instruction
Traditional lecture approach PBL Approach
Teacherdirectsstudent’sthinkingandevaluates Teachercoachesstudentsasandwhenneededanddirectstheir
students.Studentisapassivelearner. learning,engagesstudentsintheprocessofcriticalthinking,
andassessstudents.
Studentslistenandsolveproblemsusing Studentsworkinteams,engageindiscussions,thinkcritically,
givenparametersasdirected. developlistofparametersneededtosolvetheprobleminhand,
obtainparameters,andresolvetheproblems.
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Learningoccursinanenclosedlecturehall. Discussionsoccurinanenclosedroom,butthereallearning
occursoutsidetheclassroom.

pendently execute even a small project. Another pedagogy NAE 共2005兲 and to incorporate the PBL curriculum and

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that comes closer to inculcating soft skills along with re- service-learning pedagogy in engineering to a certain extent.
quired technical competence in students is service learning, Brief information about one of the courses, “Geotechnical
which is “a pedagogy or educational methodology that di- Engineering in Professional Practice,” developed and taught
rectly and intentionally integrates classroom learning with at SIUC, is discussed below.
service to the community” 共Lima and Oakes 2006兲. As The purpose of this course is to provide understanding
Tsang 共2000兲 states, “关A兴lthough service learning has re- of the concepts of geotechnical engineering in professional
ceived relatively little attention in the engineering disci- practice and to develop engineering leadership skills in the
plines, it has been well established in the social sciences, and undergraduate and graduate students planning to pursue
in disciplines in which clinical experiences represent an im- careers in geotechnical engineering or any other field of
portant part of the learning process.” civil engineering. The course objectives include applying
Service learning involves integration of several compo- the principles of geotechnical engineering effectively in a
nents and partnership among several players, such as the real-world setting; planning, managing, and successfully
community, practicing firms, students, and faculty. It is im- executing geotechnical projects; interpreting and using
portant to understand that “students performing service the recommendations developed by geotechnical engineers;
learning are not doing something for the community, but incorporating total quality management 共TQM兲; apply-
rather with the community” 共Lima and Oakes 2006兲. ing professional liability, risk management, and loss preven-
Service-learning pedagogy provides students an opportunity tion principles to geotechnical projects; training students to
to work on real-world projects that will be built based on work effectively and efficiently as members of an interdisci-
their design, as opposed to working on real-world situations,
plinary team; and satisfying the needs of internal and exter-
which can provide good experience but are not ways to de-
nal clients.
velop confidence and soft skills. Ample literature is available
The class is divided into groups of three to four students.
to understand service learning in engineering.
At any one time, each group works on the same project. The
IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLE projects selected are real-world projects that are going to be
A number of universities now set up engineering courses built in the near future or were recently built. Technical
where team leadership skills, writing, oral presentations, and complexity of the projects selected is similar to the projects
resolution of problems are part of obtaining an engineering on which engineers are likely to work within the first two to
degree 共Bellinger 2002兲. According to NAE 共2005兲, cur- three years of their professional career. In addition, projects
ricular approaches that engage students in team exercises, are selected such that the students practice leadership and
team design courses, and in courses that connect engineering management skills, ethics, and interactions with consulting
design and solutions to real-world problems so that the social engineers and community members. In order to enhance
relevance of engineering is apparent appear to be successful their communication skills, students write detailed proposals
in retaining engineering. We joined academia at Southern and project reports similar to those written by practicing
Illinois University Carbondale 共SIUC兲, and based on our ex- engineers. After completion of their own reports, the stu-
tensive professional experience we modified several courses, dents are given the opportunity to review the full original
developed new courses, and modified the instruction of reports of the project prepared by consulting engineering
courses we teach to be in line with the recommendations of firms and compare their work with the work performed by

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 ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
registered professional engineers. In addition to the real- instructors could enhance student learning drastically, the
world projects, students also work on carefully selected indi- real change to the curriculum is challenging primarily be-
vidual assignments to enhance their technical skills. cause it requires a lot of commitment and dedication from
During the first few weeks of the course, the instructor everybody involved. The implementation also demands that
coaches the students about intricate details of proposal and the faculty members modify their teaching style, which is
report writing, available resources, and technical standards not always easy. In addition, it requires administration to
and specifications. During the remainder of the semester, the understand what it takes to accomplish this so that resources
instructor serves as a resource bank. Students decide what can be directed appropriately and the team players can be
information is needed and the instructor coaches them on rewarded fairly. NAE 共2005兲 recommendations clearly state,
how and where to get the information. Whenever needed, “The engineering education establishment…should endorse
the class sessions include technical discussions on developing research in engineering education as a valued and rewarded
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design data. Balanced emphasis is placed on developing soft activity for engineering faculty as a means to enhance and
skills and technical competence. Depending on the size and personalize the connection to undergraduate students, to un-
complexity of the projects, students work on two to four derstand how they learn, and to appreciate the pedagogical
projects during a semester. After completion of each project, approaches that excite them.”
the instructor reorganizes the teams and a new project is
assigned. REFERENCES
Student performance assessment and grade assignments Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,
are very challenging for this type of instruction. Individual Inc. 共ABET兲. 共1998兲. Engineering criteria 2000, ABET,
assignments are generally easy to assess. However, assessment Baltimore, Md.
and grading of group proposals and projects presents more of Aldridge, D. M. 共1994兲. “Professional practice: A topic for
a challenge. The course instructor critically evaluates each engineering research and instruction.” J. Eng. Educ.,
group’s proposals and projects and assigns a particular score 83共3兲, 231–236.
to each group’s product. Each member of the group also Arciszewski, T. 共2006兲. “Civil engineering crisis.” Leadership
evaluates his/her team members based on their contribution Manage. Eng., 6共1兲, 26–30.
to the assignments, leadership shown, work ethics, etc. Each Bellinger, R. 共2002兲. “Product development stunted—
group’s group assignment score is then distributed to the Cancellations, cutbacks beset EE workplaces.” EE
individual team members based on the evaluation by his or Times, September, 具http://www.eetimes.com/
her team members. The overall grade is then calculated showArticle.jhtml?articleID⫽18307531典 共accessed Sep-
based on the points each student receives in his or her indi- tember 2006兲.
vidual and group assignments. Couttolenc, O. 共2000兲. “The practical experience of profes-
The student feedback of the course has been extremely sors on the geotechnical teaching process.” Proc., 1st Int.
positive, and some of the unsolicited comments from SIUC Conf. on Geotechnical Engineering Education and Training,
alumni who have taken this course include: “eight inter- I. Manoliu, I. Antonescu, and N. Redulescu, eds.,
views, eight offers of employment”; and “I attribute half of Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 409–412.
the success I have had to the class I took from you, ‘Geotech- Illinois Math and Science Academy 共IMSA兲. 共2004兲. “Com-
nical Engineering in Professional Practice.’ ” In the past sev- paring PBL and traditional methods.” Illinois Math and
eral years, students at SIUC have ranked us as the top teach- Science Academy, 具http://www.imsa.edu/programs/pbln/
ers in the college of engineering, which is attributed to the comparison/典 共accessed September 2006兲.
changes that we have made in teaching the courses we teach. Kumar, S. 共2000兲. “Industry participation in a capstone
Unfortunately courses similar to the ones we have discussed design course.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Engineering Education,
are very limited and not all graduates take them. Therefore, International Network for Engineering Education and
a much broader change in the engineering education is Research, Arlington, Va.
needed. NAE 共2005兲 emphasizes that “the iterative process Kumar, S. 共2004兲. “Teaching geotechnical engineering using
of designing, predicting performance, buildings, and professional practice.” Proc., Int. Conf. on Engineering Edu-
testing…should be taught from the earliest stages of the cation, International Network for Engineering Education
curriculum, including the first year.” and Research, Arlington, Va.
Lima, M., and Oakes, W. C. 共2006兲. Service learning: Engineer-
CONCLUDING REMARKS ing in your community, Great Lakes Press, Wildwood, Mo.
We are convinced that implementation of the PBL curricu- National Academy of Engineers 共NAE兲. 共2004兲. “The engi-
lum and service-learning pedagogy in engineering is the neer of 2020.” Publication of the National Academy of
most effective way to prepare engineers for the twenty-first Engineers, Washington, D.C.
century. Although modifying a handful of courses by a few National Academy of Engineers 共NAE兲. 共2005兲. “Educating

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Leadership Manage. Eng., 2007, 7(1): 18-23

 Tsang, E. 共ed.兲 共2000兲. “Projects that matter: Concepts and

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the engineer of 2020: Adapting engineering education
to the new century.” Publication of the National Acad- models for service learning in engineering.” Publication
emy of Engineers, Washington, D.C. of American Association of Higher Education 共AAHE兲,
Sallfors, L. L., and Sallfors, G. B. 共2000兲. “Focus on real life Washington, D.C.
problems facilitating learning and understanding.” Proc., Sanjeev Kumar is a professor and distinguished
1st Int. Conf. on Geotechnical Engineering Education and teacher in the Department of Civil and Environmental
Training, I. Manoliu, I. Antonescu, and N. Red- Engineering at Southern Illinois University Carbondale,
ulescu, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Carbondale, IL 62901-6603. He can be reached via
425–431. e-mail at kumars@heera.engr.siu.edu. J. Kent Hsiao is
Summers, M., Davis, B., and Tomovic, C. 共2004兲. “When an assistant professor in the Department of Civil and
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engineering and technology skills are not enough: Engi- EnvironmentalEngineeringattheSouthernIllinoisUni-

neering leaders out of their element.” Proc., CIEC Conf., versity Carbondale. He can be reached via e-mail at
Biloxi, Miss., ASEE, Washington, D.C. hsiao@engr.siu.edu. LME

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