Book Challenges Universities to Train New Breed of Entrepreneurial Engineer
A new textbook aims at creating a new breed of entrepreneurial engineers through focus on personal, interpersonal, and organizational skills.
Urbana, IL (PRWEB) September 3, 2006 -- Noted engineering researcher and author David E. Goldberg at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) has published a new book, The Entrepreneurial Engineer (Wiley, 2006) that challenges universities to stop turning out Dilbert-like technocrats and start turning out engineers with the combination of technical, business, and people skills necessary in an age of opportunity.
“During the cold war, engineers worked for one large organization for most of their careers, and they worked in a narrow technical specialty largely on their own or in a homogeneous group of like-minded specialists.” As a leader in the fast-paced field of genetic algorithms and as a cofounder of web startup Nextumi, Inc., Goldberg understands that engineers today must combine passion, communication, and innovation to survive and thrive. “Today’s engineer is on another planet. Careers are fast-paced. Companies seek results from a smaller core of team members, and engineers have to broaden their skill set beyond those taught in engineering school to be successful in today’s environment.”
The book is written as a textbook for engineering students and practicing engineers to help develop those personal, interpersonal, and organizational skills necessary today. Others see the book as an important contribution. Chris Magee, Professor of Practice at MIT says, “The Entrepreneurial Engineer is a timely addition to the literature because many engineering schools are modifying their early engineering educational curricula to help engineers attain a broader view of the field before they begin to learn the deeper technical aspects of their engineering domain.” Tim Schigel, Director, Blue Chip Venture Company, highlights the book’s understanding of passion in the creation of technology. “The main message of this book—and the secret that Dr. Goldberg is conveying—is that the passion for the idea, doing what you love, and having the persistence required to bring ideas to reality are the fuel of innovation. Without them, the world will not change, and the idea will stay in the notebook.”
Despite this kind of support, integrating non-technical material into the engineering curriculum remains controversial as engineering degree programs are filled to the brim with technical subjects. Nonetheless, Goldberg believes that engineering schools need to change or they risk becoming increasingly irrelevant. “Engineering colleges have not kept up with the pace of innovation. Their curricula and research programs are in many ways legacies of the cold war. Other nimbler curricula or programs will evolve unless colleges of engineering can better embrace pervasive change and opportunity.”
More information about the book can be found at www.wiley.com or www.entrepreneurialengineer.blogspot.com.
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