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Program Starts:
Autumn, Winter, Spring and Summer
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The Certificate in Engineering Leadership consists of four graduate-level courses. You can start anytime, but you must complete all fours courses. The autumn course begins by teaching engineers how to navigate the business environment. The winter term focuses on how to develop and motivate engineering teams. The spring term provides you with tools to understand and make the right decisions on complex engineering projects. The summer course ensures success on projects for which you will be responsible.
Autumn Course
Navigating the Business Environment (IND E 599)
Schedule: Tuesdays, Oct. 6-Dec. 8, 2009; 4-6:50 p.m.; $2,085, 3 Credits.
Instructor: Steve Montgomery
As an up and coming leader in your organization, you're beginning to marshal resources and direct individual contributors as a technical director or mentor. You have the engineering skills already; the tools you possess have earned you the attention of management and now it's your turn to take charge of an idea and drive it forward.
But how do you navigate the business environment so your projects are successful and you create real and lasting value for your organization?
This course will give you a series of tools and frameworks to apply toward taking project ideas from a rough concept to management approval. You will learn the rudiments of:
- Corporate business strategy, and how to relate your projects to your firm's plans
- Fundamentals of marketing, and how to use marketing techniques to help you sell your ideas to stakeholders
- Accounting and finance, and how your firm's health and financial direction determines what goes forward and what does not
- Project valuation and return on investment analysis
Understanding your business' strategy, how your firm reaches its customers, your firm's business condition and the potential impact of your work will allow you to pick smart projects and sell them to management.
Winter Course
Technical Leadership (IND E 599)
Schedule: Tuesdays, Jan. 5-March 9, 2010; 4-6:50 p.m.; $2,085, 3 Credits.
Instructor: Tamaira Ross
This course will cover the skills needed to build, lead and motivate high-performance teams as a technical leader. Technical leaders are not necessarily managers, but often lead from positions of unofficial authority. The first step in becoming a leader is to develop self-awareness, including how others perceive you and how you react in stressful situations. Participants will take a personality assessment to determine general traits and how to interact with other personality types. Communication styles, team composition, negation skills, and decision making will be discussed in the class within the context of this structure. Team diversity can be an asset and the class will cover various types of diversity such as cultural and generational. Working on virtual teams is an emerging challenge for many technical leaders and methods for working in these environments will be discussed. Teaching and mentoring is another key trait of a technical leader. It is essential to train future technical leaders. Ethical issues and a framework for evaluating decisions will be presented.
Spring Course
Decision Analysis in Engineering (IND E 599)
Schedule: Tuesdays, March 30-June 1, 2010; 4-6:50 p.m.; $2,085, 3 Credits.
Instructor: Roberto Lu
A number of multi-criteria decision tools involving quantitative as well as qualitative methods will be introduced: decision-making under certainty and uncertainty with one and several criteria; decision analysis and decision trees, value of information, subjective probability and Bayesian statistics, utility and value theories, multiple-criteria decision-making. Concepts include goals and objectives; variables and relations; constraints and feasibility; uncertainty and risk; models and optimization; data and information; analysis and simulation. Case studies in decision and systems analysis, requiring oral presentations and written reports, will emphasize the concepts and tools.
Summer Course
Project Performance (IND E 599)
Schedule: Tuesdays, June 22-Aug. 24, 2010; 4-6:50 p.m.; $2,085, 3 Credits.
Instructor: Joe Heim
In order to be an effective engineer you must be able to competently organize and manage the time and resources available for a given project. Even when not leading teams, this skill set can significantly influence your personal ability to accomplish work which has value to the business and your career. When you are leading teams, this is even more important and generally more difficult. Good project management skills often determine the success or failure of a project. This course focuses on the fundamental skills you need to effectively align your projects with company business strategies, build motivated teams, select appropriate technology tools, manage risk and communicate project objectives and progress to senior management. We will use a combination of case studies, team projects and lecture to gain insights and better understand what determines successful project performance.
