Five Growth Mindsets For Engineers - Making Room for Continued Growth and Learning in an Ever Changing Engineering Field

Making Room for Continued Growth and Learning In an Ever Changing Engineering Field

By: Ryan Malone

For Professional Engineer Continuing Education or PDH click here

originally found in Viterbi Magazine Spring 2019

1. Hug the exponential: Engineers are privileged today, as they are instrumental in setting the pace of technological growth. Our graduates must be the masters of this development. It is our responsibility to educate them with the best available engineering knowledge and skills to hug the exponential.

2. Engineering + X: Engineering (or more generally, technology) is at the center of advances in practically every discipline (read “X”). This interdisciplinarity defines where many new ideas will be incubated. Such a mindset spells out not just what we do, but also who we are and what we look like. It changes the conversation about engineering. At USC Viterbi, it helps attract a diverse group of students, as well; for example, women comprised 45 percent of our 2018 entering class.

3. Innovation in the broadest sense: Many of our graduates will develop new markets, create new jobs and reinvent themselves. Principles and practices of innovation and entrepreneurship — and the ability to reinvent oneself — will be crucial ingredients for thriving in a constantly changing world.

4. The cultural mind: Technology has increasingly profound effects on cultures. It shapes new cultural norms. Understanding cultures broadly defined: globally and locally, historically and in the future, politically and in terms of policy, is another essential ingredient to flourishing.

5. Heroic engineering: Eliminating poverty, vanquishing illness, ensuring a sustainable planet and securing a bright future for humanity are all Grand Challenges. The NAE Grand Challenges are even more apt to our engineering students. These goals are increasingly within reach because of technology. But technology can also lead to unintended consequences. This means that we must be fluent in the importance of technology ethics, where one needs to worry not only about what is smart and legal but also what is ethical.

For Professional Engineer Continuing Education or PDH click here