The course Labor and Employment Relations course LER590UE “Understanding Engineers” continues in the fourth week with Engineering in context: Professional & institutional setting:

Other posts about the course are available here, here and here.  Related powerpoints are available on Slideshare here or here.

Week 3 in LER 590 UE “Understanding Engineers” features engineering artifacts, their history and ontology.  See the presentation in the viewer below

or look at related posts here and here.

iFoundry co-director David E. Goldberg gave a presentation entitled “Play Well with Others in a Creative Era.” The talk discussed the need for, obstacles to, and innovations required for interdisciplinarity in the 21st century.  The iFoundry initiative was used as an example of a dot connector employing pairwork to cross disciplinary boundaries for an important purpose.  A blogpost at MNNblog is available here.

Sometimes a college professor publishes a new book and sometimes one gets a new academic posting, but a professor in the University of Illinois’s College of Engineering hit the daily double on both counts. Raymond L. Price, the William H. Severns Professor for Human Behavior and a member of the department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering was recently appointed to be co-director of the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (iFoundry) and his new book The HP Phenomenon: Innovation and Business Transformation recently arrived in bookstores to favorable reviews.  Price, an expert on technical innovators and how to make organizations more effective in supporting them is an essential member of both the iFoundry community and the College of Engineering and his recent accomplishments highlight his skills and creativity.

Price has served as an iFoundry fellow since the program began in 2008. His involvement has included the advancement of successful group work, strong team building and opportunities to expand leadership skills. iFoundry, an incubator for engineering education transformation, currently has 75 freshman engineering students from all engineering departments as well as over 30 faculty and staff members working to promote an overall education that teaches engineers to be multi-talented, interdisciplinary, and effective in an era demanding of continual innovation and creativity. To learn more about iFoundry, visit here.

“iFoundry’s influence is around what needs to be done with our students to make them successful in the 21st century and to make them as effective as we’d like them to be,” Price said. “It really builds and brings to life undergraduate education and works towards innovation and creativity.”

Price shares the title of iFoundry co-director with Professor David E. Goldberg. The pair has worked together for over a decade. Goldberg says, “Ray brings a rare combination of real-world insight and scholarly acumen to iFoundry and engineering education transformation.  His experience and theories have shaped iFoundry’s core intellectual principles and his management skill and experience continues to shape the kind of organization that iFoundry is becoming.

Price also serves as the College of Engineering’s William H. Severns Chair for Human Behavior. Bob Severns created the title to honor his father, William Severns, who had worked as an engineering professor at the university. The position is an unusual one for an engineering school, but the chair is awarded to an individual with organizational behavior education and experience who can help engineering students further their understanding of human behavior, which Severns believed was necessary for a successful engineering career.

“I think that Bob Severns would want the changes that iFoundry is trying to bring about,” Price said.

Price’s book, The HP Phenomenon, was also released last week. The book takes a closer look into how Hewlett Packard renewed itself over the seven decades since its founding in 1939. Price, who co-authored the work with legendary former HP engineer Chuck House, analyzed how the Hewlett Packard company encouraged and handled six major transformations over time, while most corporations only undergo one or two major changes, if any. Both Price and House have worked for HP.

“The organization, philosophy, and leadership that was in place allowed innovators to think and do work in a consistent way,” Price said. “It allowed innovators to transform the company, had engineers interacting directly with customers, and allowed innovators to get their ideas heard by senior management to make a huge difference in the company.”

Price believes a successful career involves a rigorous education for an innovator but says that finding an organization that fosters creativity and allows for growth is also essential. “If employees have the ability to navigate and understand politics of the organization they would be able to interact in a powerful way,” said Price.

To read more about Professor Price’s new release, The HP Phenomenon, visit here.

What does it mean to be a woman in science, engineering or a related field?  This is the central question the course will address.  Students will read across multiple disciplines and engage contemporary media to understand the evolving place of women within science and technology.

This course has been approved for College of Engineering Liberal Education credit for the spring 2010 semester.   Other course offering information may be found here.

Professor Tony Ward, University of York, UK will present “Great Engineering Failures” through a live video conference lecture at 11:30am on Thursday, November 19 in 410C1 Engineering Hall (SE corner of 4th floor).

This presentation is in celebration of Global Enterprise Week.

Students in human resources in the School of Labor and Employment Relations can now take a course on Understanding Engineers to help them better recruit and develop engineering talent.  The powerpoint from the first week is below:

The powerpoint from the second week on “Engineering, Education & Modeling” may be viewed below:

Related presentations are available here.

Design Matters3 is hosting Doris Wells-Papanek, design research consultant and learning coach at 5:30pm on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in the Krannert Art Museum Auditorium, Room 62, 500 East Peabody Drive, Champaign.  This event is free!

Wells-Papanek will share her latest study on creating change that matters and human-centered design in the 21st century.   More information on DesignMatters3 and Wells-Papanek may be found here.

CITES (Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services) presents a “Teaching and Learning with Technology” Brown Bag on Wednesday, November 18 from noon-1pm in 23 Illini Hall. Research shows that 75-85% of students are willing to view videos online before coming to class compared to 5% who will read the book. Christian Ray and Erin Whitteck from the department of Chemistry discuss different approaches to creating and using online video materials to supplement their lectures or to deliver the entire class online.

To view videos that iFoundry fellows have created, visit here.

The University of Illinois Department of English is offering English 582: Technologies and Words this upcoming spring semester. Students will examine reading, writing, literacy and technology from a historical point of view, from the dawn of writing to the age of the computer, exploring the different theories of orality and literacy, and looking at the spread of the written word through various communities. Students will examine earlier communication technologies (the manuscript, clay tablet, print, typing, and the telephone) as well as the ways in which present-day reading and writing practices are affected by the computer revolution and new technologies. Seminar students will produce a semester project and be responsible for a presentation.

To learn about new courses that iFoundry and the College of Engineering are offering, visit here.