PE for Engineering Professors 13

[jakin]

Most engineering professors in the very well-known (research) universities in the US do not have the PE of any state. Some months ago, an online discussion among several of them indicates that many do not even care about engineering licensure. Can one imagine a professor of medicine, training doctors, not being licensed in his state? Any ideas?

 

[ERE]

Engineering faculty absolutely should have real world engineering experience before teaching. It is not enough to know just the theory of a subject. A good teacher has to discuss the application of the material as well.

I teach full-time in a mechanical engineering technology program. 40% of my job is supposed to be "scholarly activity". As a PE, I choose to do engineering consulting work with this time. (BTW the 50% of my job that is teaching takes up about 90% of the time) I know that I am a much better teacher because of the consulting work... current projects equates to current practical examples for class... students eat it up!

There is, however, a problem with finding qualified faculty candidates to fill vacancies. Our ideal candidate will have at least a master's degree, 5 years of industrial experience and a PE. Most of the people we hire take a pay cut to enter academia. There are a lot of qualified people who are interested in teaching but are unwilling to take a pay cut to do it.

 

[Rich2001]

>Our ideal candidate will have at least a master's degree, 5 years of industrial experience and a PE.

Some stats from a community college that I taught Mechanical Engineering Technology & Engineering Transfer (2+2) at.

Number of Full-time Faculty in Engineering Technologies Department - 6
Number with Masters in Education - 2
Number with Masters in Engineering - 1
Number with any "true" Industrial Experience - 4
Number with current (within 10 years) Industrial Experience - 2
Number with 5 years of Industrial Experience - 2
Number with PE license - 1

Sad to say, this is fairly typical for community colleges.

I did have some good well qualified, Masters, PhD in Engineering and PEs, that taught part-time.

If you have your Masters and PE consider teaching a course in the evening at your local college. The student truly need some true real world qualified instructors. BTW, teaching count for CPD hours for license renewal.

Vita sine litteris mors est.

 

[ERE]

Our MET program is part of a large university... our requirements for faculty are based on TAC/ABET minimum requirements. To my knowledge, most community colleges are not accredited by ABET - it's too expensive. We get some capable students who transfer into our program from community colleges... they typically get up to speed pretty quickly...

Ed

 

[Maui]

Metengr, thanks for the compliment.

ERE, what are the specific qualities that you look for in a candidate (in order of priority) to determine if they are a proper fit for a position as tenure-track faculty member? What is the single most important quality or skill that your department values?

Maui

 

[ERE]

Maui,

I think technical competence and industrial experience in their teaching area is the number one criteria. A variety of experience is better than very specialized experience. It is helpful if the candidate has prior teaching experience. (Many of our most recent hires are former adjunct faculty.) A PE is desired. Excellent communication skills are required. The faculty in our department are very collegial. We look for people that will fit in with the rest of the faculty – hard-working team players. We value excellence in teaching and scholarship.

In our MET program, new faculty are typically given a 1 to 3 year contract – they typically are not placed on the tenure track because they are new to academia and aren’t thoroughly familiar with the requirements for tenure. If they want to attempt tenure, they have a couple of free years to develop a plan.

Ed

 

[Maui]

ERE, your description sounds very similar to the MET program at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Is this your program?


Maui

 

[kchayfie]

A teacher friend of mine (admittedly high school not university) always says the best teachers are only one step ahead of the students because they can remember what its like to not know the subject and how they came to understand the stuff. So my guess is that as long as the professors can relate to the students lack of knowledge and impart the information in a way that students can understand, it doesn't matter what experiences the professors bring with them - some will be able to teach better with PE and others will be better off without it. It just depends on teaching style.

 

[PEinc]

kchayfie,

I would not want your friend to teach my children! Unfortunately, grade school and high school teachers are frequently only one step ahead of their students. That's one of the things wrong with lower education. Also, the smartest high school grads are not usually those who go on to become teachers, if you get my drift. College teachers, especially engineering teachers, should be well beyond their students.

 

[jenn454]

Reading all these post I wonder when the last time any of you have sat through a college level course. Try to remember what it was like to learn something completely new for the first time.

As a recent graduate I found that the most important thing in a good teacher was strong communication skills and innovative teaching methods. As a civil engineer graduate all of my teacher's were PEs and worked as consultants or owned there own firm. All were actively practicing engineers. I don't think the PE provided any type of advantage.

Many of my teacher's followed the text book, and provided no additional information. More often than not I found it easier just to teach my self rather than listen to their lectures. As a student you rarely get the opportunity to practice practical application of engineering skills, this comes once you enter the work field. The purpose of school is to teach you the basic principles and theories of your field. So what good does having a teacher with a PE do. It makes little difference to me, and I think most other students would agree.

 

[HgTX]

"The purpose of school is to teach you the basic principles and theories of your field."

And with most engineers (or prospective engineesr as the case may be), the way to do this is to include information about real-life application.

If you tell me all about Young's modulus but can't explain why in the real world I need to know it, you are not a good teacher for me and you do not know enough. Period.

No one here is suggesting that licensure should in any way be a SUBSTITUTE for pedagogical skill, so the whole "I've had bad teachers who had PEs and therefore there's no point in having a PE" argument is invalid. I've had some perfectly awful professors in various fields and all of them had PhDs; does that mean that college professors don't need to have PhDs?

College instructors need:

1. Theoretical knowledge of the principles of the field
2. Teaching skills
3. A real-world clue

No one of the above is any kind of substitute for the other two.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines: faq731-376

 

[ERE]

Maui: I'm at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College.

Jenn454: You said it was easier to teach yourself... The main goal of a college education is to learn how to learn. It sounds like you are a success story. In my experience, my PE gives me the opportunity to routinely work on a variety of projects. I use examples from this work to relate material covered in class to real-world applications. I believe it is important to use examples that are different from the ones in the book - it gives students more information from which to learn... it also gives them more opportunity to formulate questions to ask.

With respect to learning new material one step ahead of students you are teaching... yuk. If you are just learning the material, you don't know the big picture of where you are heading and how the material will fit with the overall program. This method is not nearly as effective as being a subject matter expert.

Ed