2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Board 50: Unlock the Potential of Industry Partners for Engineering Education

Presented at College Industry Partnerships Division (CIP) Poster Session

Most high-performing industrial advisory boards (IABs) in the U.S. provide engineering programs with future-looking advice that energizes faculty toward improved instruction. We envision IABs that go further than the norm, engaging as active partners to implement change in engineering programs that better prepare students for a dynamic industry. With the support of the Kern Entrepreneurial Engineering Network (KEEN, https://engineeringunleashed.com/), our team of university faculty from seven institutions (University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Clarkson University, Rowan University, Drexel University, Boston College, University of St. Thomas, and the University of North Alabama) have implemented a new program titled "Project Unlock: Accessing the power of your advisory board." This program aims to equip industry and academia advisory board members with a framework and accompanying playbook to “unlock” such a collaborative journey. In this presentation, we report the results of a “Lightning Poll” survey of Department Heads/Chairs and Deans from numerous engineering programs of various size, focus, and research activity across the U.S. about the types of engagements that happen between engineering programs and their advisory boards. The results provide a more detailed view of the landscape and context of current advisory boards and engineering program interactions and inform the framework and playbook development. We discuss further how programs can transform their IABs into Industrial Partnership Boards (IPBs) that are co-creators of the curricular and/or co-curricular student experience. It is our belief that these deeper interactions will drive transformational change at adopting institutions towards production of students with an entrepreneurial mindset that embraces the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of future engineering practice.

Authors
  1. Dr. Shane W. Rogers Clarkson University
  2. Dr. Philip J. Parker P.E. University of Wisconsin - Platteville [biography]
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