1. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu CAREERS IN ENGINEERING What do engineers do? Percy A. Pierre Michigan State University

2. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu History of Engineering Trial and error engineering used to produce ancient monuments: e.g. Egyptian pyramids, great wall of China, gothic cathedrals. Military engineering used advanced technologies: e.g. Leonardo da Vinci earned more money designing war machines than art. In the early 1800’s, the French developed the first curriculum for military engineers (e.g. castle building) and civil engineers (e.g. road building) and gave us the word “engineer”.

3. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu History of Engineering in America In 1802, Thomas Jefferson established the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and appointed Colonel Sylvanus Thayer as Superintendent. Thayer adopted the French engineering curriculum, bringing science and math to the profession and leading to the establishment of the Army Corps of Engineers. In 1867, Dartmouth College established the Thayer School of civil engineering.

4. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu The Fields of Engineering As technologies emerged and evolved, out of civil engineering came the other fields. Mechanical engineering during the industrial revolution, steam engine. Electrical engineering in the late 1800’s for electric power. Chemical engineering for the petroleum industry. Industrial engineering for manufacturing. Environmental engineering in the 1970’s. Computer engineering.

5. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu What is Engineering? The profession in which a knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied with judgment to develop ways to use economically the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. Engineers design, produce, and support useful things.

6. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Engineering: A Team Sport with Different Roles for Different Players Education: Preserve and transmit the body of engineering knowledge and art to students. Engineering Research: Translate math and science into useful models for engineering design. Advanced development: Develop new technologies for potential application. Engineering design: Design and test useful products. Manufacturing: design the facilities for the mass production of useful and economically viable things: e.g Intel.

7. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Education: Teaching Only Today, there are very few places where you would teach and not do research. Most professions want those established in the profession to do the teaching: e.g. medicine, law. Community colleges use teachers but have a very limited engineering curriculum. Almost all universities require their faculty to do some research.

8. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Education and Research Research intensive universities select faculty primarily on their research potential. Teaching load of one to two courses per semester. Most basic research is done at research intensive universities. Comprehensive universities select faculty for both teaching and research. Teaching load of up to four courses a semester. Only 20% of engineering Ph.D.’s go into teaching.

9. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Academe: A Competitive Environment: At MSU, 45% research, 45% teaching, 10% public service. Research measures include publications, Ph.D. graduates, and grant support. Teaching is evaluated using student evaluations. Research is usually the critical variable. National recognition counts for a lot.

10. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Sloan Students at Universities University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (7 students) University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (1 student) University of Louisiana at Lafayette (1 student) North Carolina A&T State Univ. (1 student) Polytechnic of Puerto Rico (1 part-time) Xavier University and Prairie View A&M

11. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Research Government Labs:  Support mainly applied research.  Limited in-house research, manages large portfolio of contract research done by universities and industry. Non-Profit R&D Labs:  Primarily Supported by NASA and the Departments of Defense and Energy.  Does applied research. Industry:  Research focused on product development.

12. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Government Labs And Pierre/Sloan Affiliations Air Force Research Labs, Dayton Ohio: (2 Ph.D.’s and 1 MS Sloan students employed) Army Research Labs, Md. (Pierre Managed as ASARDA) Naval Research Labs, Md. Los Alamos Laboratory (Served on Advisory Committee) Fermi (Served on their visiting committee) NASA (Served on Advisory Committee) NSA (1 Ph.D. Sloan student) NIST (2 Ph.D. Sloan students)

13. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Non-Profit Labs and Sloan/Pierre Affiliations MIT Lincoln Lab does advanced development (served on their Visiting Committee, 2 Sloan Ph.D. students) Aerospace Corporation does system engineering (Served on Board of Trustees, one Ph.D. Sloan student) MITRE does systems and communications (one Sloan Ph.D. student) CNA does operational analysis (Served on Board of Trustees) Johns Hopkins APL (1 MS Sloan Student)

14. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Industry/Sloan Sandia (1 MS Sloan student) Texas Instruments (1 MS Sloan Student) Raytheon Missile Systems (1 MS Sloan student) 3M Corp. (1 MS Sloan Student) Microsoft (1 MS Sloan Student) Intel (2 Ph.D. and 1 MS Sloan Student)

15. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Industry/Sloan Corning Inc. (1 Ph.D. Sloan Student) GE Laboratories (1 Ph.D. Sloan student) ExxonMobil (1 Ph.D. Sloan student Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems (1 Ph.D. Sloan Student Lockheed Martin (2 MS Sloan students) Northrop Grumman (1 MS Sloan student) Boeing (1 MS Sloan student)

16. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu MSU SLOAN NETWORK Over 120 students have graduated from the Sloan program with MS and Ph.D. degrees We have a list serve of those graduates. sloanalumni@egr.msu.edu Your message will be sent to me for my approval

17. College of Engineering www.egr.msu.edu Summary As with any profession, you need to enjoy engineering in order to excel. There are many different roles you can play in the profession. These roles can be in academe, government, the non-profit sector, or industry. The rewards will be commensurate with your contributions.