2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

To design future work and work systems, and to succeed as workers in future work systems, the next generation of engineering professionals require not only the engineering fundamentals we teach today, but must also acquire a deeper awareness about, and a critical appreciation and understanding of how future work and work systems will look and function for workers, what knowledge and skills workers of the future will need when working in new age AI-driven work systems, and how organizations can achieve differentiation and competitive advantage through innovation and entrepreneurship. Research suggests that critical thinking and argumentation skills, convergent multidisciplinary problem solving skills, individual and team creativity, knowledge of innovation processes, practices, tools and metrics, entrepreneurship practices, and an entrepreneurial mindset may be important to cultivate both among future engineering professionals, and in organizations vying for global competitive success in the new future work landscape. While mainstream engineering curricula are beginning to include technical literacy and proficiency in topics such as AI, data mining, and even prompt engineering at undergraduate and graduate levels, a majority of the new age engineering workforce and leadership skills, and the pedagogical principles and practices for teaching these new age skills remain unintegrated in the engineering curriculum. In this paper, we discuss our efforts to better prepare undergraduate and graduate engineering students for the future of work through dedicated courses in the future of work, industrial innovation sciences, future work leadership and work systems management, and entrepreneurship using innovative pedagogical practices such as debates, pitch presentations, innovation tournaments, cultivating curiosity and value creation mindset, risk management discussions, decision making practices, and business strategic planning. We discuss strategies for incorporating the appropriate blend of pedagogical practices into engineering courses to make learning and preparing for the future of work a fun, enjoyable and effective engineering educational pursuit.