Leadership Engineers

University of Texas at El Paso is starting an engineering-program which combines a traditional curriculum with training in leadership, strategy, and creativity.  Engineers need to shake up the way engineers are educated.  Many organizations and people are starting to think differently.  UTEP is a great example.

From the UTEP press release on the program:

"The Leadership Engineering Program includes a broad-based curriculum of engineering design, project management and innovation, along with an emphasis on business, communication, ethics and social science. It is expected to launch by the fall of 2012 and represents a new paradigm for engineering education. “The U.S. is at a tipping point regarding its global competitiveness in technological innovation, and to a very large extent, humanity is critically dependent on technological innovation for its own sustainability of lifestyle and, even, survival, in the current century,” said Richard Schoephoerster, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering. “What some people are calling renaissance engineers, we call them leadership engineers. The overarching goal is graduation of a new pedigree of qualified engineers with the professional skills, business acumen and strategic foresight, in addition to engineering prowess, to meet the needs of industry in the 21st century.” The new program will educate engineers through a “liberal-technical” approach, featuring a new curriculum designed to capture the interest and imagination of talented, young leaders looking to turn their ideas into a reality."