Improving Professionalism in the CEC Department

Hikaru Canode
Bobby Mueller
Andrew Borgman

Introduction
An essential part of any college education is preparing the student to successfully
compete on the job market and land a rewarding career. Typically, larger colleges will
provide their students with various opportunities such as study abroad, career fairs, and
classes dealing with resume building and workplace professionalism. At Miami, the
engineering department in particular seems to be lacking the career opportunities and
connections of the more established departments such as the Farmer School of
Business. So consequentially, we set out to find out why Miamis engineering
department seems to lack the overall professionalism that Miamis business school is
known for. By considering alternative solutions, we found out if it would be feasible to
modify part of the curriculum or add additional professionalism courses. The addition of
more study abroad opportunities and a job preparation curriculum will benefit the
students by helping build connections and a notable resume.
Overview of Alternatives
There are various possible solutions to help fix these problems. We believe that
there is a much better alternative than the current curriculum and that the engineering
career services could also use some improvement. One curriculum change that would be
beneficial is to improve the CEC 101 course so that it provides a more thorough overview
of engineering, rather than an easy lecture class. Another possible alternative is to
change the order of required engineering courses, for example technical writing seems
to be more beneficial taken sophomore year rather than junior year. In terms of the
practicality of these solutions, it is a definite possibility; however it would not be without
compromises. Changing the curriculum would call for the moving of many classes
around, and would more than likely complicate scheduling. We found that in regards to
study abroad and internship opportunities, our options are to either add more
opportunities, or improve the opportunities that are currently available. At first it
seemed to make more sense to simply add more opportunities, but as more research was
conducted, it became apparent that the number of opportunities available was not the
true issue, the problem was more within the quality and awareness of the existing
opportunities. What seems to be the best option seems to be improving awareness of the

existing programs and scholarships, as this will not cost as much money, and it also
makes little sense to add more programs when the current ones are not doing well.

Criteria
By adding a more professionally focused curriculum, students will be better
prepared for internships, co-ops, and also their careers. Many engineering students
today make a resume on their own when applying for internships and co-ops, at least
until they have taken ENG 313, which is typically a junior level class. By implementing a
professionalism component to an earlier engineering class, engineering students may
become better prepared for internships and co-ops than they currently are. By adding
such a component to CEC 101, a class that has recently undergone re-formatting, and
will continue to be re-formatted into the foreseeable future, all first-year engineering
students will be prepared to apply for internships. This is very important because for
engineering students it is not uncommon to find internships or even co-ops after their
freshman year going into their sophomore year. Another factor weighing in on the lack
of professionalism in the engineering department is the minimal opportunity for an
engineering student to get involved in a study abroad program. Currently there are not
as many study abroad opportunities through the university for engineering students as
there are for business students. Part of this is due to the fact that the engineering school
has not been around as long as the business school, but the other reason is that Miami
University doesnt have as many engineering based connections abroad. By establishing
more connections with various schools abroad that also have engineering programs,
students will be able to take more classes abroad, and have more options for going
abroad. It is currently very difficult if not impossible for engineering students to do the
current study abroad programs and still graduate in four years. By creating more
connections, students will be able to take more classes in their studies abroad, allowing
them to graduate in the four years. Both adding a professionalism component to CEC
101s curriculum and creating more connections abroad should be within the bounds of
possibility and even feasibility. CEC 101s curriculum is constantly being changed, and
staff are currently working to make the class better. however they do not know what to
do to improve the class. Adding a professionalism component to the curriculum which
may for instance add an assignment in which students must make a resume or attend a
career services resume workshop should not be very difficult or strenuous on the
current staff in charge of the class. It would not necessarily require more facilitators for
the class at all, and would give the class a more serious feel, which is important
considering the fact that among students, the class is considered a joke. As far as making
more study abroad connections goes, it should not be too hard for the university to
research current, popular and effective engineering study abroad opportunities used by

other universities. Establishing more connections would in turn benefit the university as
well as the students, and in theory should not be a very difficult task for the university.
Neither courses of action seem to produce many, or any unwanted side effects. Adding a
professionalism component would increase the legitimacy of the class in the eyes of the
students, and also give a look into what a career as an engineer entails. Adding more
connections for study abroad for engineering students will also give students more
opportunity to study abroad and create global connections, and for the university it will
bring in more revenue as students pay to study abroad more. Making these changes to
the curriculum and the university should be within the realm of feasibility.
Method
Before determining whether our intended course of action was feasible or not, we
had to make sure the problem we were trying to fix existed. In order to compare the
professionalism of the engineering department to the business department, a survey was
sent out to multiple groups of engineering students as well as business students. The
survey asked questions about the students plans to study abroad, whether or not they
had an up-to-date resume, and what they thought the department could do to improve
professional opportunities. The data gathered from the survey reflected both the lack of
professionalism in the engineering department compared to the business school, as well
as the lack of awareness of existing opportunities like scholarships for study abroad.
In order to determine whether or not changing the curriculum for CEC 101 and
increasing the number of foreign connections our school has are feasible options,
several interviews were conducted. The first interview was with Chloe Gessner, who is
the public relations chair for the college of engineering and computing student advisory
council. Gessner also heads the committee in the advisory council responsible for
improving the study abroad programs within the university. When asked whether or not
the school and the advisory council were working to create more connections abroad,
Chloe stated that initially that was the intention, however there was a lack of staff
cooperation. Instead, the school is working to increase awareness of the existing
programs and scholarships, and to improve the value and quality of the existing
programs as well. She stated that not many students are aware that there is a significant
amount of scholarship money available, or that there is a significant number of
opportunities available for studying abroad. She noted that one major issue that comes
from the lack of awareness in study abroad programs is that it means only a few people
ever sign up for the trips, and when there arent enough students signed up, the trip gets
cancelled. The last question asked was If you could change anything about the
departments current approach to study abroad, what would it be? and Gessner
responded saying she would press more for awareness by advertising more, and having
advisors encourage their students to study abroad. Currently they tend not to do so, and
if advisors start to help students to study abroad, it may allow them to still finish in four

years making advisors a very powerful tool in making study abroad a more common
thing in the engineering department.
The other interview conducted was with Dr. Brian Kirkmeyer, who is the assistant
dean for student success, and is an instructor in the engineering department. One of the
classes that Dr. Kirkmeyer used to teach was the class that is now CEC 101. Since he was
a former teacher for the class, Dr. Kirkmeyer was able to give good insight on the subject
of the classs curriculum, and he also spoke about the study abroad situation. One of the
most important points made by Dr. Kirkmeyer was that it was hard for the engineering
department to compete with the business schools level of professionalism, when the
business school has a significantly larger staff, and has full time staff devoted to things
like professionalism or first year experience while the engineering department has no
staff members like that. He made a point to say that the department has grown
significantly in the way of student population, however the staff has not been allowed to
grow yet in recent years.
Evaluation of Data
The survey and the interviews conducted provided much information that
clarified the problem Miami Universitys Engineering program faces with
professionalism and offered both the students and faculties views on the problem and
potential solutions to correct it. For the survey, it was found that 82% of engineering
students at Miami, 91% of whom where at least sophomores, have yet to participate in a
summer or winter internship. This number is shockingly low considering that Miamis
engineering department does not promote getting co-ops where a student would take a
semester off to work with a company to gain experience. This means that while
engineering students may be receiving an adequate education in the engineering courses
they take, they are lacking the work experience they need to be successful after
graduation. It is not surprising then that the most common response from the question
In what ways can Miami University better prepare you for workplace professionalism?
was the need for more internship opportunities and awareness of these opportunities.
Clearly, students do not feel that Miami University is doing an adequate job at preparing
them with workplace experience.
Another result gathered from the student survey was that study abroad
opportunities for engineers are not a viable option for many students. The main study
abroad opportunity being pushed by the engineering department right now is a four
week summer trip to Poland. The program fulfills only three engineering credits and
costs nearly 6,000 dollars. On the survey, one student described the study abroad
opportunities Expensive and unattractive. Many planned study abroad opportunities
are being cancelled due to lack of student interest. It is necessary that students become
more involved and interested in studying abroad as well as the faculty working hard to

make these opportunities more feasible and attractive to students in order for the
engineering department to help students develop professionally.
Another method of data collection used for this project was interviewing faculty
members. Brian Kirkmyer, the assistant dean of the engineering department was very
helpful in answering questions. He stated that the engineering department is already
making changes to help solve this problem, however there are some obstacles that the
department must overcome. One big issue they are currently working on is restructuring
the CEC 101 course to include a brief section of resume writing. The problem that is
being faced is that in order to do this they would need to break the large lecture into
several smaller sections. Currently, the Engineering department is lacking the staff to
make doing this a feasible option. Also, providing writing support to engineering
students is difficult because the engineering department does not have as much support
from the university as other departments do when it comes to professional writing. For
example, Dr. Kirkmyer said that the Farmer School of Business has a Howl writing
center located on the second floor for business students to take advantage of, while
engineering students have to use the one located in King library, which is often very
crowded and not as convenient for students as one in the engineering building would be
for students. Also, the business school has an established campus in Luxembourg where
many students study abroad. This campus offers many courses that a business student
needs to graduate. The engineering department has no such connections with other
campuses in different countries, which is why it is very difficult for engineering students
to study abroad while also completing their required credits.
Dr. Kirkmyer only addressed internship opportunities briefly in his interview. He
mentioned that the department recognized this as a problem, however were not doing
much to address it. He said that many opportunities are available, however they are not
required for students to participate in and therefore students had to seek them out for
themselves rather than have them included in coursework.
Conclusion
From the information gathered from the interviews and the surveys, it can be
concluded that students graduating from the engineering school have not been given the
best opportunities to be prepared for workplace professionalism through career
planning, study abroad programs, and professional writing coursework. It was gathered
through interviews with the assistant dean of the School of Engineering that while
changes are being made, it is a slow and gradual process that will take much cooperation
between students and faculty. The main changes that are being considered is a change in
the CEC 101 class to include a section covering resume building and professional
writing. Many study abroad opportunities that the engineering school has offered have
been canceled due to lack of student interest. this is partially due to the high cost and
limited credits these opportunities offer, but it is also due to lack of communication

between the faculty and students making them aware of these opportunities. Overall, the
faculty of the engineering department are aware of the lack of professionalism
preparation the students graduating from Miami Universitys engineering department
are receiving and are working to make changes, however lack of staff and student
interest is making it difficult for these changes to be made quickly. Looking forward, it is
likely that the Engineering department at Miami will include more effective professional
writing in an engineers course curriculum as well as offer more attractive study abroad
opportunities to students once the departments staff grows and becomes more
established. It is feasible that these changes can be made, however it will be done at the
speed of the University and may take several years to be implemented fully so that all
the problems are addressed.
Recommendations
At this point, our most suitable recommended plan of action would be to not
change the curriculum or add any study abroad/internship opportunities yet. However,
since we have found that the engineering department currently is understaffed, we
would recommend first hiring more employees. Then fixing the curriculum would be
more feasible by adding more sections/more in depth content to CEC 101, and possibly
rearranging the schedule so that Technical Writing is taken sophomore year for all
engineering students. As for study abroad and internship opportunities, it would seem
appropriate to raise student awareness by making announcements, posters, and so on.
However, Miami needs to make more professional engineering connections to help
provide more opportunities to students. Eventually if there is more student interest in
study abroad and summer internships, it would be beneficial to add more programs and
workshops.