Because of the increased recognition of the need for leadership training within all subcultures of the engineering profession, an overview of a one-credit-hour course on leadership skills is provided. The intent of the course is to broaden the students' perspective on engineering practice, to develop an awareness that engineering is more than just the completion of technical assignments, and to introduce skills and characteristics that are necessary for them to assume positions of leadership as they advance along their career paths. Rather than a concentrated effort on one aspect of leadership, the philosophy that underlies the course is one of exposure to a broad spectrum of leadership skills. As such, the course includes discussions of the following topics: leadership theories, motivation, public policy, ethics, creativity, communication, research methods, and personality type. Recommendations on course readings and paper topics are provided.

Engineers are often the guardians of the environment, and just as often the instruments of environmental destruction. They are constantly called on to make ethical decisions that will affect the future of the planet Earth and its inhabitants. Little guidance is available, however, to the engineer on how such decisions should be made. There is no formal environmental ethic for engineers. Classical ethical theory does not seem to provide a useful tool for helping us understand our responsibilities toward the environment or for making decisions where environmental values conflict. One approach to developing an acceptable environmental ethic is to turn to the spiritual dimension. This paper shows how many of the world's religions can be useful in the development of an environmental ethic, and it also illustrates that the acceptance of organized religion is not necessary for the formulation of an environmental ethic. We show that a useful and satisfying environmental ethic can be developed on individual and personal spiritual foundations, and we suggest that most people already use spirituality to condition their attitudes toward the environment.

Developers of emerging technologies, and the agencies who fund them, need an alternative to traditional cost-based risk prediction methods to help them predict how the costs of their technologies might change under future deployment scenarios. Often the only data available for predicting risk are the limited but complex data generated by field testing emerging technologies in the prototype phase of development. This paper presents a conceptual framework for evaluating cost and performance constraints of emerging technologies; the framework can be used to prioritize the allocation of research and development funds for the development of such technologies.

Risk management consists of five stages, which are essential to the success of a major project. These five stages are identification, analysis, evaluation, response, and monitoring. The variations in using such risk management practices are considerable and are dependent on numerous factors such as the industry sector. This dependency is investigated and presented in this paper. Over 100 companies within the construction industry and oil and gas operators in the United Kingdom were surveyed through questionnaires that elicited information on the size and range of activities of the company, the techniques of risk analysis currently being used, the company's policy on responding to risk, as well as identifying specific risks encountered during any particular project. This paper highlights the vital conclusions accumulated from an analysis of the responses to the various sections of the questionnaire. The main conclusions from this paper are as follows: Personal and corporate experience and engineering judgment are the most successful qualitative techniques; expected monetary value, expected net present value, sensitivity analysis, and decision analysis are the principal quantitative techniques; and risk reduction (through staff training and education and the improvement of working conditions) is the most popular method of responding to risk.

A mock bid letting process is described that provides an assessment of student learning in construction process design. A case study is presented where students submitted mock bids at an Iowa Department of Transportation bid letting according to the same rules and under the same conditions as industry professionals. Assessment was provided because the bids were read aloud and compared with professional bids. Student bids were in the range of professional bids or slightly higher. The reasons for success are discussed, and planned changes for future mock bid lettings are listed.

The need for assessment methodologies has become more pressing in recent years, and, as such, the new criteria for accrediting programs in engineering in the United States developed and implemented by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology in Baltimore makes it clear that schools must address these issues. Implementing this methodology will require multiple measures administered over a long period of time and will require engineering faculty and administrators to devote a considerable amount of effort and energy. Because over 50% of undergraduate engineering course work is taken outside of the College of Engineering, it would seem feasible that engineering faculty could establish cooperative efforts with these service course providers to assist the College of Engineering in its efforts to achieve its educational goals and in assessing the outcomes of its various engineering programs. In this paper the rationale for sharing the outcome assessment as well as how the specific sharing can be accomplished is presented.

The Master Builder Program is a practice-oriented master of engineering degree program that has been developed and implemented by the faculty in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute. The central theme of the Master Builder Program is building process integration, which is a systems or integrated approach to the planning, design, construction, and management of constructed facilities. Building process integration was chosen as a strategic plan to focus on one segment of the building industry, to provide a unique educational product, to exhibit the strengths of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and to distinguish the program from practice-oriented graduate degree programs that have been established at competing colleges and universities. The 30-credit-hour curriculum includes two required courses, a capstone project, and electives. Faculty collaboration and industrial participation are critical elements of the program.