Dean: Engineering Week

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 Thomas L. Landers, Ph.D., P.E. Dean Look at Oklahoma’s leading and emerging industries and you’ll see the need for growing a strong engineering workforce. Campus career fairs attract diverse companies, all competing to hire engineers. The Oklahoma Employment Security Commission forecasts average annual engineering job openings will approach 500 per year through 2014 across all sectors, with biomedical, environmental and software engineering cited among Oklahoma’s top growth occupations. A recent survey of Oklahoma’s aerospace sector by the Governor’s Council for Workforce and Economic Development projected a shortage of over 600 engineers. We sometimes hear claims that America’s engineering workforce demands will be met by immigration and deferred retirements. These claims overlook some important realities. Many of our engineering jobs relate to national security and require U.S. citizenship. Retirement-eligible engineers offer valuable experience, but industry also requires entry-level engineers with the latest technological knowledge and skills. While our population is becoming increasingly diverse, we are not attracting representative numbers of women and minorities into the engineering profession. Global competitors like China and India have developed their own educational systems using U.S.-educated faculty; with booming domestic economies, these countries are hiring their own engineering graduates and luring back engineers with degrees and work experience gained in the U.S. This is National Engineers Week and a good time to recognize initiatives Oklahoma engineering colleges and professional societies are putting forth to fill the pipeline for engineering talent. Examples include K-12 outreach and enrichment programs, scholarships, industrial internships and study abroad experiences. Oklahoma’s private sector must continue to lead in creating opportunities for future engineering students. An example is the recently announced $1 million contribution by AT&T to endow the Summer Bridge experience in the college of engineering at The University of Oklahoma. AT&T Summer Bridge offers freshman engineering students an intensive three-week experience leading into the fall semester. Many of the participants are students from minority groups, inner-city and rural areas. Through Summer Bride, participants receive intensive academic preparation in various subjects such as calculus and writing, participate in creative teamwork and problem-solving exercises, and learn about career opportunities. A highly successful first session in summer 2007 served 20 students; with the AT&T gift, OU will now serve up to 60 students per year. The ExxonMobil Lawrence G. Rawl Engineering Practice Facility currently under construction at OU will become the home for Sumer Bridge, offering students the very best in facilities and equipment for a life-changing experience. We live in an increasingly competitive, technology-driven world. Our quality of life depends in part on the ability to create innovative products, develop new energy sources and build superior civil infrastructure. Essential to this growing need is a strong engineering workforce that proves the technical knowledge, problem solving skills and inventiveness that’s vital to global health, security and prosperity. Now is the time for Oklahoma citizens to help encourage and develop our future engineering workforce. It’s an exciting time, and the opportunities for young people in our growing, knowledge-based economy have never been better.

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