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Jessica Rush Leeker Employs $2M NSF Grant to Expand Learning Resources in Engineering for Black Families

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 20:45:36 +0000

Jessica Rush Leeker Employs $2M NSF Grant to Expand Learning Resources in Engineering for Black Families Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 09/11/2024 - 14:45

Published: September 11, 2024 • By Wendy Martin

Jessica Rush Leeker has been awarded a $2M National Science Foundation grant to advance her research on creating informal learning resources out of a structured, formal environment that promotes the participation of Black families in engineering. Her work focuses on developing pathways for Black families to engage in engineering practices and see themselves as integral members of the engineering community.

Jessica Rush Leeker

Leeker's project, supported by the $2M National Science Foundation grant, is a collaborative effort. In partnership with Lauren Mims from New York University and Tamecia Jones from North Carolina State, Leeker will co-develop informal learning resources with Black families. These resources, designed for children aged six to ten, will provide opportunities to engage in various engineering activities at home. The aim is to encourage children to consider engineering careers by allowing them to engage in engineering practices such as empathizing, defining, ideating, prototyping, and testing.

A Real-life, Community-driven Project

For Leeker, this grant presents an invaluable opportunity to expand her innovative research on the role of informal learning in engineering education among Black families. This project will explore how these identity-affirming resources can foster children's engineering identities and interests by connecting them with their historical and cultural roots, enhancing their sense of belonging and confidence in engineering fields.

Leeker's research will involve co-developing these resources with Black families across various settings in the United States. By capturing and analyzing interactions between caregivers and children, as well as the children's creations and reflections, Leeker aims to understand how these informal educational experiences shape children's perceptions of their capabilities and potential careers in engineering.

“We plan to develop educational tools and frameworks that can be replicated beyond the initial study, enhancing the broader educational landscape by incorporating these rich cultural narratives into engineering education,” Leeker said. “This will not only benefit the participating families but also create a model that can be adapted and used in other contexts, transforming how underrepresented groups engage with engineering globally.”

Leeker believes this research can significantly increase diversity and inclusion in engineering fields by reconnecting children with their legacies of innovation and problem-solving. Their goal is to build bridges between generations, linking personal and communal histories with contemporary educational and professional opportunities in engineering. This approach is expected to enrich children's academic and personal development, thereby broadening participation and success rates among underrepresented in engineering disciplines.

Inclusion of Other Populations

“This grant is a testament to the importance of creating inclusive educational resources that reflect the diversity of our communities. I am excited to see how these informal learning tools can inspire the next generation of Black engineers and innovators. We hope to expand these efforts to other underrepresented populations in STEM,” Leeker said. “By partnering with Black families, we can develop educational materials that teach engineering concepts and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Black scientists and engineers. This approach is crucial for fostering a sense of identity and belonging in STEM fields, and we aim to extend this inclusive model to other communities as well.”

Future Aspirations

“Our goal is to create a sustainable model for informal engineering education that can be replicated across different contexts. This project will serve as a blueprint for engaging underrepresented communities in meaningful and impactful ways, with the potential to adapt and apply these methods to a wider range of populations,” Leeker added.

Engagement and Dissemination

The resulting deliverables from Leeker's research will include video workshops for caregivers, easy-to-use engineering activities, and wide dissemination of findings, public media, high-traffic repositories, and professional networks of science and engineering educators. The empirical findings will also be shared widely via professional conferences and journals in educational research.

Ultimately, Leeker's project aims to broaden participation in engineering among the Black population, who remain underrepresented in engineering pathways and careers. This grant supports a vision of developing new approaches to STEM learning in informal environments, providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in engineering education.

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Global Semester: ESCEND Engineering Management/Entrepreneurship Minor (Lisbon, Portugal)

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 19:15:16 +0000

Global Semester: ESCEND Engineering Management/Entrepreneurship Minor (Lisbon, Portugal) Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/17/2023 - 13:15

Complete your Engineering Management or Entrepreneurship minor while spending Fall semester abroad in Lisbon, Portugal!

Learn More Information

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Breaking New Ground: Building Equitable and Sustainable Communities

Anonymous — Tue, 01 Nov 2022 16:51:32 +0000

Breaking New Ground: Building Equitable and Sustainable Communities Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/01/2022 - 10:51

In 2021, Robertha Richardson from Tuskegee, Alabama, sat down to read Equity, Inclusion and Diversity in Engineering: Why They Matter. The article featured Dr. Jessica Rush Leeker, Director of Undergraduate Education, and Stephen Dunn, Professor of Engineering Management at CU Boulder’s Engineering Management Program (EMP).

Richardson is the founder of Harvest Dreams, a nonprofit focused on fostering sustainable food production systems and affordable housing in her local community. She comes from a family of Black farmers who’ve owned for 100 years the Tuskegee land they farm.

“Richardson saw the article and reached out to me to explore whether we could create any partnerships or synergies,” says Rush Leeker. “She knew she wanted to do something to create more sustainable communities, and that’s how the Building Legacy in Engineering research project got started.”

An Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) grant is funding the project that involves PI, Dr. Jessica Rush Leeker, Co-PIs, Shawhin Roudbari and Laura MacDonald, a collaboration between CU Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences (CEAS) and Environmental Design (ENVD) and Tuskegee University's College of Agriculture, Environment and Nutrition Sciences led by Dr. Raymon Shange.

Together, they’re pioneering a "living-learning lab" through design-build projects that experiment with agricultural-land infrastructure that’s socially and ecologically sustainable.

Building Legacy in Engineering—A Unique Partnership

Tuskegee University’s partnership is partly because of its proximity to Harvest Dream, Ms. Richardson, and her family’s land there. Additionally, Tuskegee’s prominence as one of the nation’s top historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) and its deep-rooted connections to Black history and education made it the perfect choice for the collaboration.

“We knew we needed a partnership with Tuskegee. We did not want to come in as a predominantly white institution when there was a school already there,” Rush Leeker explains. “So, we started to work on potential synergies and authentic partnerships to create, and we’re excited to be working with Tuskegee University.”

The project that began with Ms. Richardson now seeks equally forward-thinking students and community members to participate.

“Because Richardson cares a lot about the legacy of her family, we knew we wanted something with stakeholder engagement and community engagement,” says Rush Leeker. “We wanted the community to have a say, and students, to work together each year. So, approximately ten students from CU Boulder and ten students from Tuskegee will work together to create the living-learning lab.”

Collaborating To Build Resilient Communities

The partnership between a predominantly white institution and an HBCU College is a pioneering and exciting initiative in community partnership.

The lab will be designed as a “living” design, and the dynamics will change yearly. “The best part about this project is that we don't know what it’ll always look like,” Rush Leeker adds. “Every year, a group of students and different professors will design, and they’ll have themes they work on and then pass on to the next year and the next.”

Rush Leeker admits there is risk involved when there’s so much freedom to explore, but everyone agrees it is a risk worth taking. “I want to shout out to Harvest Dreams about not being scared to do this and to be excited about it,” she says.

Harvest Dreams already plays an important role in building equitable and sustainable communities, and the project will be able to rely on their expertise and community connections. “They do a lot of community outreach,” explains Rush Leeker. “So, they’re finding ways to get greater stakeholder engagement in the area, and they have land we're going to use to create the living lab.”

Richardson will also work closely with the students throughout the project. “When they have a design in mind,” says Rush Leeker, “they’ll work with her and the community to make sure that it matches the mission and the vision.”

“In the first year, environmental design, led by Co-PI Shawhin Roudbari, will lead and work with students to think through the community piece, thinking with empathy about who's involved and how to work with those stakeholders,” says Rush Leeker. “The grant is studying a lot of different relationships: faculty relationships and student relationships across different diversities. It also looks at how we involve the community in this process.”

It is an essential step toward collaboration on many different levels. “This is very important because many people are not comfortable with ambiguity—especially engineers,” says Rush Leeker. “They want to know the answer. They want to know how it's done. And the living-learning lab is a process that includes going back and changing things. I'm excited about it.”

Addressing the Challenges of Creating Equitable Communities

One of the biggest challenges the project addresses is the colonization of community outreach, where outsiders come into a community and dictate the changes that should happen.

“We want to decolonize community outreach,” says Rush Leeker. “We don't want to go into a community as if we know what they want. We want to go in listening and understanding the history.”

For Building Legacy in Engineering, the goal is to involve the community from the earliest stages. “We're hoping to show what community engagement can look like,” explains Rush Leeker. “Many times, people go into a community already thinking, ‘I know what they want, and I don't need to talk to them.’ That’s a big issue, and we're trying to show that community engagement can be done and that community involvement from the very beginning of a project is so important. That's one of the most important things we’re doing.”

Another challenge is talking about issues of race in a respectful way that encourages dialogue and mutual understanding. Tuskegee, Alabama, is a city that is pivotal to Black history in the United States, as home to the World War II Tuskegee Airmen, educator Booker T. Washington, civil rights icon Rosa Parks and scientist George Washington Carver. However, the area also has a history of food scarcity and poverty—an estimated 30% of the population is struggling below the poverty line, according to 2020 Census Bureau data.

“We’re taking on that challenge by focusing on how to have complex conversations about race and class,” says Rush Leeker. “We’re showing how to have these dialogues with students and faculty and ensuring we have a team that can support that. Building the trusting relationships to make up that team has been an exciting process.”

Because the research team doesn’t know precisely what the project result will be, they’ve had to become comfortable with ambiguity. “It’s been important that we start as an open grant with freedom for innovation,” she adds. “The innovation piece is so important, and we must move forward without fear.”

New Models for Sustainable Community Development

As they innovate, the Building Legacy in Engineering team hopes to create models that other universities can follow. “We hope to model how collaboration between two universities can happen and how faculty can facilitate,” says Rush Leeker. “As faculty, we're enablers and guardrails, and we hope to show how this can be done—giving the students free reins but still being their support.”

Because this project involves informal learning research that happens primarily outside the classroom, the team is determined that students have the support and resources they need to participate. In this, the program is also striving to model equity.

“It’s crucial to us to make sure that everything’s equitable and that we're supporting the students in this journey with us,” Rush Leeker explains. “We’re making sure students get a monthly stipend to participate. This is an opportunity for them to gain skills and knowledge, so much of the budget goes to the students and different speakers or workshop leaders we’ll bring in to help them gain the skills they’re lacking.”

The Role of Engineering in Creating Self-Sustaining Communities

A key focus is establishing a collaboration where the community is a participant, not just a passive beneficiary of the project. “I’ve been on a lot of service-learning projects in Haiti and other places, and we go in and leave again, and that’s it,” Rush Leeker adds. “That’s why it’s important for me and the whole team to think of this project as a two-way relationship. The students and faculty will learn as much as we're giving to the community, so involving the local community and giving everyone a voice at the beginning is very nice. Even the mayor, Lawrence Haygood, is on board. Having this whole community-enriching experience is key.”

For engineers to make a difference and build sustainable communities, they’ll need to begin as listeners. “We’ll need to understand the history behind what’s happening in the local community,” says Rush Leeker. “We can start with changing our mindset and seeing everyone as human. Then, we can go in and see how we can all use our skills together, to look for opportunities to create sustainable community development and solve these opportunities together.”

Each year, students will work with the community to build stakeholder engagement so the community can keep going forward after the grant. “We’ll look at what resources the local people need for the community to sustain the work,” Rush Leeker explains. “Hopefully, elementary and middle school students, including my children, can go to this place and learn. Let’s say they find sustainable agriculture there, sustainable architecture, and other structures. The students can see it as a science or engineering lab that they can learn from year in and year out.”

Sustainability That’s Engineered for the Long Term

Building Legacy in Engineering is a four-year grant project—aptly named for the legacy engineers can leave for this community. “Each one of the students who’s involved will bring in their bricks—that is, the skills they’ll offer in the project,” says Rush Leeker. “Every student's going to bring their unique skill set, and by the end, what we begin building will continue to be built long after we’re gone.”

Sustaining progress will also involve the community. “We’ll also outline a process plan for the community, including helping them know how to obtain resources for support. If they need a group reflection, for example, to talk about strengths and weaknesses or improvements we can make, we’ll help them navigate all that. And after we leave, hopefully, it will continue.”

Sustainability in Engineering

To learn more about how a Master of Engineering in Engineering Management from CU Boulder can help you better understand the role of engineering in building more sustainable communities, visit the Engineering Management Program page. You can speak with an advisor or request more information by contacting: Kendra.Thibeault@colorado.edu.

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What Is a Capstone Project in Engineering?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Jul 2022 13:34:21 +0000

What Is a Capstone Project in Engineering? Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 07/07/2022 - 07:34

For Faculty Lecturer Alyssa McCluskey, the capstone project at the University of Colorado’s Engineering Management Program (EMP) boils down to two things: agency and opportunity.

Agency, because students can chart their own course. And opportunity, arising from that agency, allows students to become leaders on their own or within their organizations. McCluskey ought to know: Capstone worked for her as a student and she knew, eventually, it could work for others as well.

“In my civil engineering capstone, we could explore and create different solutions to the use of biosolids, and I was really proud of the report and presentation that we produced,” McCluskey says. “I did send the report to my future employer, a research institute in Boston, and was hired partially based on the document that I had sent them. And I just remember really enjoying the process. So I wanted to bring that to this Program as something to offer the students.

What Is a Capstone Project?

In the Engineering Management Program, students can now elect to cap off their engineering curriculum with a capstone project. The project can be anything that uses their management and engineering skills to make a product, design software or find innovative ways to affect change within their industry.

In the past, students were given a list of topics to write an 8-10 page paper using concepts learned throughout the program to culminate their degree. McCluskey found that the traditional method was serving neither students nor faculty well. This method seemed like just regurgitating material and lacked a meaningful experience for students to use what they learned throughout the degree.

Looking for more flexible options for CU students, the EMP decided to offer two paths for degree completion: completing the full coursework, 30 credit hours, or taking 27 credit hours of coursework and completing a final 3-credit capstone project in their final semester.

“We made the capstone flexible so students can explore any ideas or topics of interest,” McCluskey says. “Anything from hot topics in project management to anything they found interesting over their courses in the EMP. I encourage them to look at courses they really enjoyed, talk with professors they enjoyed learning from, meet with professionals working in areas they are interested in and think of topics around that.”

A Diverse Range of Capstone Project Ideas

EMP just launched this program and there are four students in the first cohort, each working on a unique capstone project. All of them are focused on finding practical solutions to real-world problems.

One student’s capstone is about finding effective methods and tactics to increase employee engagement within the Office of Information Technology (OIT).

“This is a student who’s employed at OIT at CU,” McCluskey says. “And so she was asking how do we retain our employees and make them happy and want to stay? She found some startling statistics that close to 50% of employees are thinking of leaving.”

This capstone is especially topical given the nature of the Great Resignation where many employees are seeking better opportunities and are no longer willing to settle for the status quo.

“She did a number of surveys, listened to podcasts, took some courses and came up with a plan that she’s trying to implement within her department based on the capstone she worked on,” McCluskey adds.

Another fascinating engineering capstone project idea was one student’s mission to make a more sustainable satellite, combining interests in both sustainability and the aerospace industry.

“They developed a tool to quantify the environmental impacts of producing, launching and disposing of a satellite,” McCluskey says. After inputting the information into a spreadsheet, it comes out with “the carbon footprint of what the satellite would produce. And not only that but also ranking which areas you should spend your [resources] and get the most bang for the buck that’s most probably going to reduce your carbon footprint,” McCluskey says.

Given the concerns about orbital “space junk,” this capstone project addresses a need in aerospace that could be all the more germane as technology allows us to explore beyond our own planet.

And for the person on the move whose arms are constantly full and trying to literally—and figuratively—juggle the messiness of life, one student came to the capstone project with an idea already in hand: “merge bottle technology”—magnetized stacking water bottles that allow you to carry different beverages or food in one place, even at different temperatures.

“What I saw was great,” McCluskey says. “As a parent, you’re having to carry all these things, right? Also, he found that people in the healthcare industry and first responders who might be on a shift for a long time were interested right away. You can keep something hot, you can keep something cold, you could put food in one and drinks in another. Teachers as well. They have all these bags and bunches of containers they carry around. So instead of having multiple water bottles for your coffee and your water, you could just carry one stack.”

Yet another capstone project focuses on the uncertainties inherent in software product development and how that uncertainty affects humans at the neurobiological level.

“This student is in the software product management field, so she studied how we can better support employees to deal with uncertainty,” McCluskey says, “and she came up with four main things that companies can do to help their employees deal with that.”

The capstone project identified four key strategic theories—frequent stakeholder communication, a transparent roadmap with dependencies, iterative feedback opportunities and integration and focus on analytics—that empower product managers to ameliorate uncertainty among stakeholders during the software development process.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway is that students focus their capstone project not on abstract concepts, but on tangible strategies that have the potential for immediate real-world application. As a result, these capstone projects can help a student stand out as a desirable employee and a potential leader in their field or company.

Communication and Research: Soft Skills for Engineers that Pay Dividends

Many people—even many experts— know their field and products inside and out but struggle with communicating their ideas and knowledge to key audiences within their company or to clients. To help develop these skills, part of the capstone project incorporates a communication course.

“This involves working on your writing, working on your presentation skills, and working on peer reviews,” McCluskey says.

Good communication also means translating sometimes complex ideas and knowledge into a “language” that a wide audience can understand. That’s a skill that students refine over the course of their projects.

“You may understand something so well that you’re using acronyms others don’t know and you just lose the reader right away,” McCluskey says. “So that’s something we spend some time on. What’s nice is that we switch throughout the semester with our peers as well as the instructors and advisors so that if anybody is unfamiliar with something, it’s highlighted.”

Another benefit of the capstone project is that it allows students to stretch and improve their research skills beyond the usual Google search. Rachel Knapp, assistant professor and applied sciences librarian at CU, spoke to the capstone cohort and went over online resources available to CU students via OneSearch and discussed best practices in research strategies—for instance, how to narrow a topic and get the best out of information searches and how to determine which journals you may want to publish in. If capstone students get “stuck” in their research or are not getting the results hoped for, they can set up an appointment with a CU librarian to help with ideas and options.

Armed with this information, the capstone gives the students a chance to put into action much of what they’ve learned during the EMP and presents a valuable opportunity to live out what being an engineering manager is all about.

“They come in and they are the project manager of their capstones, ” McCluskey says. “So they get a chance to implement all the things you can think of that go into that: time management, building out your product schedule, problem-solving skills, thinking ahead, identifying what you might run into that’s going to cause a problem. They start to build their confidence because they’re now experts on this topic.”

Taking on a project of this nature flexes many skills including writing and planning, constructively giving peer feedback, and setting and achieving goals—while also making a student an attractive hire or a more effective contributor in their current position.

“The student who created the toolbox for the sustainable satellite,” McCluskey says, “is actually presenting to some higher-ups in his company who have expressed interest in what he’s done. So that’s not only letting our student be seen by people up in his organization but also giving him a way forward and fast track in that sense.”

“This is a Chance to Explore Something That Interests You”

For students, these ideas for capstone projects lead to something beyond typical coursework: the freedom to explore. Instead of listening to lectures and wondering, “Will this be on the test?” EMP capstone cohorts take the reins of their interests and bring those ideas to the world with the idea of solving a problem for individuals (teachers/mothers/first responders) or an entire industry (more sustainable satellite building for aerospace).

“This is a chance to explore something that interests you,” McCluskey says. “You’re not coming to a class prescribed exactly what you have to learn. You get to choose where you want to put your time and where your interests lie. It’s a win-win: You’re getting credit for it, and you're also coming out with something that you might personally believe in or want to move forward with.”

McCluskey is proof positive of the benefits of the capstone. She still works with advisors she knew from 30 years ago.

She says, “You’re really developing those relationships as well, not only with your classmates through working together in peer reviews and class, but also with your advisor and other professionals you interact with over the semester.”

“I’m their guide on this adventure,” McCluskey adds. “I bring in some guest speakers so they can learn from outside experts. I try to base the guest speakers on student interests like entrepreneurship and journal editors for publishing papers to help spark and refine student ideas. I also have lectures and guest speakers on communication best practices throughout the course, and then help them stay on track.”

Advisors, faculty or working professionals who are chosen by each student, meet with them at least five times over the semester, all the while reviewing the work. These relationships may bear fruit later in a career and provide an important sounding board for bouncing around new ideas.

And in the end, the progress made quite literally puts a capstone on the Engineering Management Program.

“It gives you confidence and pride in the culmination of your degree,” McCluskey says. “It's not just a piece of paper, you actually have a product that you've developed and the ability that you can do something like this.”

Engineering Capstone Projects: For EMP, It’s Just the Beginning

For McCluskey, this is an exciting time. Seeing the four students come through the capstone project fills her with optimism for the future of the project and, more importantly, what it offers to EMP students willing to take on the capstone and flex their engineering skills.

She sees students come in with ideas that are all over the board and then with her help along with other advisors, refine the ideas so they are manageable and attainable. It is gratifying for McCluskey to hear what the cohort had achieved at the end of this pilot program.

“We had them present to all the advisors at the end of the semester and they offered beautiful presentations,” she says. “They were high quality. They were very articulate. They answered questions. It was fun to see the advisors’ excitement with the different products.”

It could be that one student's capstone becomes the cornerstone of another student’s in the future; that it could, as McCluskey says, “spawn another idea for the next capstone. There might be somebody interested in a project that someone else did before and they could take it to the next step.”

For now, the capstone project is offered only in the spring semester, but with growing interest, it could be offered every semester.

The hope is that each session of capstone projects will spur more inspiration and more innovation.

“I was ready for some bumps along the road,” McCluskey says. “I was able to be pretty agile and move where I saw the needs that were there. So I’m really excited to learn more from these students and watch more students grow from an idea to a product they’re proud of. So I’m excited to just have more of them.”

Learn More About the EMP Capstone

To learn more, please visit the Engineering Management Program website or email alyssa.mccluskey@colorado.edu for more information about the capstone project.

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Engineering Management Program expands degree offerings with Coursera partnership

Anonymous — Fri, 27 May 2022 13:47:15 +0000

Engineering Management Program expands degree offerings with Coursera partnership Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 05/27/2022 - 07:47

The Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program at CU Boulder has been preparing technical professionals to be successful business leaders since 1992 through its on-campus and distance-learning degrees.

Now, the program is making graduate education even more accessible and flexible with the launch of a fully online Master of Engineering degree and graduate certificate in partnership with global learning platform Coursera.

Christy Bozic, director of the Engineering Management Program, said the degree and certificate are uniquely structured to be accessible to students from diverse backgrounds.

“Admissions are entirely application-free, based instead on performance in a series of gateway courses,” she said. “All students who maintain a B average are automatically admitted.”

Courses are taught by the same instructors as the on-campus degree, with core coursework focused on finance for technical managers, project management, authentic leadership and engineering communications. �鶹��Ժ then choose from a slate of elective courses to complete 30 credit hours, earning a master’s degree in as little as two years.

“We are proud to expand our partnership with Coursera to make engineering management education more accessible and flexible with this new degree modality,” Bozic said. “Having the program on Coursera helps us reach working professionals around the world who are looking to translate their learning into career advancement — often while still working full-time.”

EMP is also introducing a nine-credit graduate certificate, which can be completed in as little as six to nine months. The certificate can count for credit toward the master’s degree, which makes it a good option for students looking to try courses before they commit to a master’s.

Enrollment for the master’s and certificate programs will open Aug. 8.

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Engineering, Law and Product Liability: What Engineers Need to Know

Anonymous — Wed, 06 Apr 2022 14:59:32 +0000

Engineering, Law and Product Liability: What Engineers Need to Know Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/06/2022 - 08:59

Like all engineers, Professor Michael Readey has a passion for solving problems. Throughout his career in product development, he has worked on projects ranging from designing medical components used to separate blood cells to implementing large-scale biogas at massive landfill sites. However, the creative and elegant solutions employed in developing products can sometimes end up in unfamiliar territory for engineers—the courtroom. As a professor in the University of Colorado Boulder’s Engineering Management Program (EMP), Readey now helps engineers anticipate challenges relating to engineering, law and product liability.

"It's important that we prepare students for the commercial and legal aspects of developing engineering projects in a robust and reliable way," says Readey. "That's very much what the Master of Engineering in Engineering Management at CU Boulder is all about."

Improving Engineers’ Communication Skills

In many ways, CU Boulder’s engineering management degree is designed to break students out of their engineering silos. This approach can be seen throughout the Program.

“I’ve just finished a product development course where the idea is to explore how large companies develop new products,” says Readey. “The class starts off by trying to identify a problem. The students blast through that part really fast because they want to get to the technical solution.”

At this stage, Readey steps in to apply the brakes.

“We slow that whole process down, which frustrates them a little bit because they want to jump right to the technical answer,” says Readey. “I actually make them interview potential customers to see if they share the same vision of what the problem is. Often, they walk away thinking, ‘Oh, I had no idea this was the real problem.’ It's an enlightening experience.”

According to Readey, for many engineers, talking to somebody outside of their own technical environment can be anxiety-producing.

“Once they do it two or three times, all of a sudden that kind of anxiety breaks down, and then it becomes a much more natural process,” says Readey. “It's fascinating to watch them evolve through courses like that.”

The anxiety felt by many engineers when communicating with people outside of their technical silos is amplified when dealing with individuals from a completely different professional field. This is particularly true in more complex and potentially unfamiliar environments—like law.

Engineering and Law: Learning a New Language

According to Readey, the impact of engineering, law and product liability is something engineering students rarely get to investigate.

"In traditional engineering classes, at the undergraduate or even graduate level, students never really talk about those kinds of legal issues," says Readey. "It's all very technically oriented, which of course, is fine. But in an industrial environment, as you start to progress up the ladder, one of the things that you discover is that you do less and less of fundamental engineering work. Instead, engineers as managers increasingly look at commercial and legal aspects relating to their work."

When it comes to learning about legal issues, Readey compares the challenges engineering management students face with learning a new language.

"When compared to something like computational fluid dynamics, or looking at finance and how you calculate it, using simple spreadsheets is relatively straightforward from an engineer’s standpoint," says Readey. "However, when it comes to engineering law, it's a different language. I'm not trying to turn people into corporate lawyers, but they're going to be talking to people in the legal profession, and they need to speak their language."

While Readey’s goal is not to turn engineers into lawyers, he does admit that the experience can lead some students to pursue a legal career.

“One of the people who helped us get this course off the ground is a practicing attorney,” says Readey. “He was an aeronautical engineer himself in his early days. But, unfortunately, he learned that engineers could sometimes only facilitate change in a product’s design after a catastrophic event. So he realized early on that he could have a bigger impact on product design in the courtroom.”

Just like language students benefit from practicing with native speakers, Readey uses a similar technique to teach his students about product liability. He does this by bringing together engineering management students with students from CU Boulder’s Colorado Law school.

"As engineers, we can get really intimidated by the idea of talking about the various steps in the litigation processes to a lawyer," says Readey. "We have all these preconceived ideas of what being a lawyer is all about. On the other side, the lawyers are intimidated by the engineers because they think they don't know anything compared to the engineers. So what happens when you get these two groups working together is that they find common ground and discover they both know their stuff and are actually really nice people."

Readey describes the process of bringing engineering management and law students together as "a lot of fun."

"It changes the whole dynamic of what the class is all about," says Readey. "It becomes much more group-oriented. It's enjoyable to watch."

What Is Product Liability?

“Product liability is basically when things break before you expect them to break, and that product failure has some adverse impacts,” says Readey. “In the engineering realm, we talk about designing and developing new products, and we do all this really sophisticated modeling. But sometimes, there's something we don't anticipate, and that will cause the product to fail.”

When things break, the scale of the problem can be anywhere from reputational to, in the case of something like a jet engine, potentially catastrophic.

“We have engineers and law students sitting in the same room, and we talk about what happens after a product is out there in the marketplace, and what happens if things don't go according to plan,” says Readey.

According to Readey, the class is designed to help engineers transition to the role of expert witnesses in the event of a product failure.

“They talk about failure mechanisms and how to explain that to a lay jury,” says Readey. “Then they look at how they might work with legal teams on both sides of the equation for resolving a particular issue.”

Readey explains that this is a very different environment than many engineers are used to.

“Sitting in a courtroom as an expert witness, getting asked questions from both sides, can be a daunting experience,” says Readey. “This course helps to overcome some of that anxiety by getting a little bit of practice and knowing how the process works. The engineers walk away from the course experiencing a whole different side of engineering.”

The law students, who are all in their second or third year of law school at CU Boulder, also enjoy the experience of honing their legal skills in a simulated courtroom and dealing with challenges they may also face.

Engineering and Law: Determining Who Is at Fault

Readey explains that the law students are presented with a little bit of technical information so that they understand the language of why things fail before looking at a real example.

“The students were recently presented with a case where a carbon frame bicycle broke in half, injuring the rider,” says Readey. “The law students had to put together a case from both sides, the person that got hurt and the bicycle manufacturer, and argue who was really at fault here. So the class is literally a mock trial, where everybody gets to act like the jury, and the two attorneys get to grill the expert witness as to what was going on.”

On the scale of catastrophic failures, a broken bicycle frame might not be the most significant case of a defective product an engineering management or law student ever faces. Still, Readey insists that the scenario is scalable and provides a perfect introduction to what is product liability law.

“When Boeing was having trouble with its 737 Max aircraft, we had people from the aerospace world come in and give guest lectures,” says Readey. “One expert talked about the challenges with the MCAS system, which was the software that was causing the plane to do everything that it was not supposed to do. They talk about who was at fault. Was it the manufacturer, the FAA or the software developers? So yes, it was the same situation as the bicycle frame, just obviously at a much larger scale and with a lot more expert witnesses.”

How Does an Understanding of Liability Make Somebody a Better Engineer?

While many engineers typically don’t think about product failure and subsequent liability concerns for the company, Readey believes understanding the issue is essential for any engineer wanting to see the bigger picture beyond the technical elements of the project they are working on.

“What often happens in an industrial environment is an engineer is on a product development team working on just one piece of the problem,” says Readey. “So they design their piece, and that usually goes into a bigger system. When the design goes from the development phase to the implementation phase, the engineer goes off and starts work on the next product. They don't get too involved in things that happen after it's introduced into the field.”

Readey explains that as engineers progress into management positions, they have to look beyond their immediate sphere of influence.

“As managers, engineers need to start thinking about reliability-related issues,” says Readey. “If a product fails, what are the ramifications on the manufacturer and the people using that product? And so we talk about the risks and how you avoid those risks. It's a new experience for engineers to think about what happens after they do their product development job, and that's a really good experience for them.”

Where Does Product Liability Fit Into the Engineering Management Degree Program?

Product liability is an elective course that usually sits in the last third of the master’s Program.

“This would be a perfect fit right after students have taken their finance classes, their project management classes and their product development classes,” says Readey. “These are what I would call the fundamental courses, where they understand the product development process, the issues around the cost and pricing, and the commercial side of the product itself.

Readey has a very compelling elevator pitch to attract students to the elective course.

“It's an opportunity to work in a very different kind of environment than you might be used to as an engineer, and this can open up many more opportunities in your career. It's also an elective course for our law students who enjoy the course due to the practical nature of the work covered.”

Engineering Management at CU Boulder

According to Readey, the quality of the faculty is one of the biggest reasons why engineers should consider CU Boulder for their masters in engineering management.

“Nearly all of the professors who teach these courses are like me,” says Readey. “We’ve spent most of our life in industry. So we've actually done a lot of the things that we talk about. That's a huge advantage over what I would call the more traditional academic programs that are out there.”

Readey also highlights CU Boulder's close ties to the industry.

“The Boulder and Denver area is home to a lot of the aerospace world,” says Readey. “For instance, we have a company called Ball Aerospace, which is right next door to us. We have Lockheed Martin, which is just outside of Denver. We also have a very strong medical components community around us, and we're developing courses to really tailor the experience for our students in those industries and their professional environment.”

However, it’s the practical nature of the courses that Readey really likes to focus on.

“I really enjoy the practical nature of what we do,” says Readey. “Our goal is not to produce research papers for academic journals. Instead, our goal is to prepare engineers for leadership positions in their industry. And while I would say several engineering management programs are like that, we're one of the few where that's our only focus.”

Learn More About Engineering Management

To learn more about how a Master of Engineering in Engineering Management from CU Boulder can help you better understand engineering law and product liability, visit the Engineering Management Program page. Alternatively, you can speak with an advisor or request more information by contacting: Kendra.Thibeault@colorado.edu or call 303.492.0954.

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Leeker blends research into STEM mentorship, industry, and sustainability through role in Engineering Management Program

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 23:39:49 +0000

Leeker blends research into STEM mentorship, industry, and sustainability through role in Engineering Management Program Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/17/2022 - 16:39

Leeker blends research into STEM mentorship, industry, and sustainability through role in Engineering Management Program
Published: Feb. 14, 2022 • By Josh Rhoten

When Jessica Rush Leeker was an undergraduate at Penn State University, an adviser asked her an interesting and deceptively simple question. It’s a question that has echoed through her work as a mentor and educator to this day.

“She did not ask me what I wanted to be. Instead, she asked me what skills I wanted to bring to my community and the world,” Leeker said. “That shift in perspective has informed a lot of my work with students and was incredibly formative.”

Leeker is a professor and faculty director of undergraduate education in CU Boulder’s Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program. She brings a unique outlook and perspective to those roles because of her extensive industry and nonprofit experience coupled with a master’s in business administration and a PhD in engineering education at Purdue University.

The combination has resulted in a research portfolio that touches on the practical methods of corporate outreach in STEM and mentor relationships among traditionally underrepresented students in engineering.

As one of four women in her undergraduate engineering program, she said she knows how valuable mentors can be.

“It is so important to have someone you can look at and say, ‘They did it and so can I.’ Representation matters,” she said. “Dr. Mary Pilotte at Purdue was that kind of mentor to me and is still in my corner today – encouraging me to focus on the things that make my blood boil, the human-centered, social aspects of my research, which were and are fundamental to me. And not making me feel like any less of an engineer because that is where my priorities and interest were.”

A recent collaboration with Tuskegee University is a great example of how Leeker combines all of those interests along with related concepts like sustainability and active learning. Initially funded through a seed grant from the Resilient Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity Interdisciplinary Research Theme, the project aims to create a participatory engineering design model that explicitly addresses historical and institutional racism. She said the project builds cultural empathy and understanding among students at both universities to create both socially and ecologically sustainable growth.

Leeker is also teaching an inaugural course in diversity, equity and inclusion that asks students to re-envision the design process from the start. In simple terms, she said, diversity refers to the presence of differences in any sense, equity refers to fairness, and inclusion refers to having resources and opportunity.

An upcoming course in entrepreneurial development she is teaching this summer for both undergrad and graduate students will cover similar concepts and approaches.

“Engineering is essentially using principles to design and make something, including systems. When you include DEI in the design process, students see that the disintegration of each population was designed and, for the most part, is still designed and is working the way it was meant to be,” she said. “I love teaching this because halfway through you can see a lightbulb come on for the students as they start to see and understand the systems at play. I help students grapple with this and figure out ways to make lasting changes in their design.”

Leeker added that those topics recently have become issues of national debate but said there need to be more candid conversations around DEI and more groups telling their own stories.

“To paraphrase Dr. Carter G. Woodson, when we give ourselves space to understand ourselves without myth to understand the human experience before we get to the present, we have space to accept the facts as they are and grow from there,” she said.

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Masters in Engineering Management vs MBA: A Checklist for Choosing

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Oct 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Masters in Engineering Management vs MBA: A Checklist for Choosing Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 10/27/2021 - 01:00

Over the last several decades, the path ahead for those who aspire to manage and lead organizations across the spectrum of business and industry was understood and clear: earn a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

But in recent years a new path has emerged for individuals whose professional pursuits are more focused on scientific and technical fields: the masters in engineering management. As the degree continues to grow in popularity, it raises a question that more and more prospective graduate students are encountering: What are the benefits of a masters in engineering management vs. an MBA? And how do you choose the best option?

As one would expect, both degree paths offer distinct benefits. Typically, either of the graduate degrees will position you for elevated professional opportunities and career advancement in a business or engineering field. The simple truth is that for higher-level leadership roles, most companies and organizations may highly consider candidates who have earned a master’s degree.

But there are also several key differences between the two degrees in terms of areas of programmatic focus, group-based learning activities, and the specific types of outcomes each is designed to prepare graduates to achieve. For some, the more traditional MBA may deliver a better range of career options, while for many others, the more recent masters in engineering management degree is the better choice.

“Deciding between the two is largely going to depend on the industry you’re working in, your role within that industry, and where you aspire to go from there,” says John Svoboda, who has both a Master of Science in Telecommunications and an MBA and is an instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Master of Engineering Management Program. “The MBA will have a somewhat broader application, while the Master of Engineering (ME) in Engineering Management degree would be a better transition tool for someone working in one particular engineering field who’s looking to move into another area of engineering.”

The first step to truly understand the choice between a master of engineering management vs. MBA is to take a closer look at each.

Understanding the Traditional MBA Degree

The MBA was first offered during the early 20th century when Harvard College established the first-of-its-kind program in 1908. Industrialization and the growth of heavy industry and manufacturing companies required a new kind of manager who could effectively oversee and lead large operations with divided areas of specialization and labor tasks, and successfully bridge the divide between management and employees.

From the beginning, MBA programs evolved to reflect the needs of business and industry of the times. While early programs focused exclusively on serving younger students coming straight out of undergraduate programs, in 1940 the University of Chicago launched the first MBA program designed to meet the needs of professionals already working in business. This led to the eventual offering of what came to be known as Executive MBA programs.

In the 1950s and 1960s, research indicated that MBA programs at the time weren’t broad enough and needed to incorporate more study of theoretical concepts and research opportunities. In the 1990s, schools started shifting the focus of their MBA programs once again. This time, they aimed to balance out theoretical learning with more active, group-based project learning initiatives.

With all of the changes and evolution of MBA programs, however, there have been some constants. The purpose of the program, from the beginning, hasn’t wavered — to create a graduate business program that would be considered on the same level as degrees in medicine or law, but for business executives and leaders.

Another aspect of the MBA that has stayed relatively constant over the latter half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, albeit with some new twists, are the core areas of concentration within the curriculum. These typically include the study of:

Accounting
Management
Economics
Finance
Marketing

But again, as global commerce continues to evolve at such a rapid pace, so too have the areas of concentration for most MBA programs. �鶹��Ժ today, as opposed to their counterparts from decades past, pursue study in additional areas such as health care management, entrepreneurship, international business, social media and enterprise, and innovation, among others.

In addition to newer and emerging areas of specialization within MBA programs, another obvious evolution over the years has been how courses, and programs in general, are delivered.

Today’s MBA students are afforded highly flexible scheduling options, which in many cases include online courses, evening and weekend courses, and part-time programs for working professionals who want to achieve the impressive credential, but won’t be able to complete the program in the typical two-year timeframe of full-time students.

The key distinctive characteristics of a high-quality MBA program include:

Broad Applications. An MBA degree can be applied to upper-management positions across a broad spectrum of business and industry.
Opportunities to Focus. Within virtually any MBA program, students have opportunities to specialize their studies and develop focused expertise to make themselves more marketable in areas that interest them.
Name Recognition and Established Reputation. The MBA is seen as the gold standard of credentials that can position individuals for the highest levels of leadership in business.

A Different Type of Engineering Degree: Understanding the Masters in Engineering Management

The benefits of an MBA for engineers can be many, but it’s not the only option for turbocharging an engineering career. The masters in engineering management (MEM) degree may not have the historical roots or established reputation like the MBA, but it’s an equally powerful professional credential for the right student, looking to thrive in certain fields.

In fact, the degree itself has a deeper history than most might think; early forms of graduate-level programs focused on providing business management and leadership skills specifically for individuals looking to work in the technology and engineering fields began emerging in the 1960s.

While in the past, the MBA has enjoyed wide name recognition, the increased demand for the technical skill in management acquired in a masters in engineering program has raised the degree’s visibility and value, both for working professionals and their employers.

Today, the masters in engineering management degree is recognized as an advanced credential, gaining momentum over the past decade with more programs emerging nationwide. The trend shows no signs of slowing — the explosive growth of complex organizations and companies that are driven primarily by engineering and technology are contributing to the demand for the degree and further strengthening its name recognition.

Further, in today’s arena of business and industry, engineering isn’t done in a vacuum. Even in non-engineering companies and organizations, engineering impacts all kinds of business initiatives and endeavors in a variety of ways and more often than not is becoming the focal point of major organizational decisions.

In that sense, finding ways to develop leaders who effectively synthesize engineering and technology expertise with skills in management, leadership, creative thinking and decision-making creates a kind of “best of both worlds” professional. �鶹��Ժ who study engineering management at the graduate level develop knowledge in business principles and core areas, including:

Accounting
Economics
Finance
Operations management
Quality control
Human resources management
Operations research

Additionally, masters in engineering management programs also typically incorporate areas such as:

Systems engineering
Industrial engineering
Mathematical modeling
Management information systems
Management science
Product engineering

Given the technical nature of the masters in engineering management vs. the MBA, it’s typically a prerequisite for applicants to have earned their undergraduate bachelor’s degree in a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) field. In contrast, students who are admitted to MBA programs come from a wide range of undergraduate disciplines, including business, economics, engineering, humanities, hard sciences, and social science, among others.

The Engineering Management Degree: Let’s Recap

So, to review the key distinctions that characterize the masters in engineering management program, they include:

Focused Applications. A masters in engineering management is typically ideal for those looking to work at organizations highly focused on engineering and technology, but it is also a viable path ahead at non-tech organizations simply because those, too, are impacted by technology at some level.
Emerging Name Recognition. While not as well-known as the MBA, a masters in engineering management is generally regarded at the same level by employers in engineering and technologically related fields, and its popularity is continuing to grow.
Background in STEM Field. �鶹��Ժ considering a masters in engineering management are usually required to have an undergraduate background in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics.

Masters in Engineering Management vs. MBA: A Checklist for Choosing

When it comes to deciding which graduate program is the best fit for you, your interests, and your career goals, there’s obviously a lot to consider. Here are a few important, practical considerations to think through as you weigh your options:

Your Undergraduate Degree Program

Do you have an undergraduate degree from an engineering program or a STEM field? Or is your bachelor’s degree in business or some other non-science field? This is important because the masters in engineering management is designed for professional engineers or applicants who’ve earned their bachelor’s in engineering or a STEM field, while the MBA can be pursued by individuals coming from business- or non-business undergraduate backgrounds, including engineering and STEM fields.

Graduate Program Entrance Requirements

Entrance requirements vary by graduate program and institution, and both the masters in engineering management and MBA require the successful completion of graduate-level entrance exams (though in some cases applicants who have achieved a certain GPA for their undergraduate degree may be exempt from this requirement). The difference, however, is that most MBA programs accept the GMAT exam or the GRE, while a Master in Engineering Management Program like that at CU Boulder accepts the GRE.

MEM vs MBA: Program Focus

This might be the most important consideration for anyone thinking about the masters of engineering management vs. the MBA. The MBA incorporates the traditional areas of study such as accounting and finance, along with new and emerging areas, in a way that positions graduates to succeed as leaders and managers across a broad spectrum of business and industry.

A masters in engineering management enables students who come from an engineering or technically related background to augment that knowledge with business skills it takes to bridge the gap and succeed as leaders and decision-makers in high-tech organizations, departments, and corporations—in a program that's designed specifically for, by and with engineers.

Best Engineering Management Master’s? The One That Fits Your Goals

One additional aspect you should consider when weighing the choice between a masters in engineering management vs. the MBA is: which will be more effective at setting you apart in the eyes of potential employers? Fortunately, both degrees will do just that.

The Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program at CU Boulder

Once you’ve gained a more thorough understanding of the masters of engineering management vs. the MBA choice and determined that the engineering management degree is the best path ahead for you, it’s time to carefully explore different programs to find one that will offer the best possible preparation for success in the field.

For a growing number of talented individuals who aspire to leadership roles at the highest levels, the Lockheed Martin Engineering Management Program at the University of Colorado Boulder (EMP) is the right choice.

The Master of Engineering in Engineering Management at CU Boulder provides a strategic alternative to an MBA and provides a relevant intersection of engineering and business that better prepares students to thrive in leadership roles in technology and engineering fields.

“�鶹��Ժ in our Program benefit from a very diverse classroom dynamic,” Svoboda says. “There’s a lot of group-based learning and so in any given group, you may find someone who works in software, a civil engineer, and an electrical engineer working together. It’s representative of the very interrelated nature of engineering as a whole, but even more important, it reflects the professional world we’re living in and so it adds a lot of value to the learning experience.”

�鶹��Ժ in the EMP encounter a carefully crafted program of study that offers a breadth of perspective and a depth of knowledge that sets graduates apart from traditional MBA graduates. Areas of study in the Program’s curriculum include:

Introduction to Engineering Management
Finance and Accounting for Engineering Managers
Project Management OR Software Project Management OR Fundamentals of Systems Engineering
Leading Oneself
Engineering Communication

Additionally, the Program requires the completion of up to five elective courses, which provide students with opportunities to further specialize their studies and develop highly marketable expertise and management skills in new and emerging areas in engineering and business. Some of the Program’s electives include:

Engineering Principles
Leading Technical Organizations
Ethical Decision Making
Entrepreneurship for Engineers
Applied Business Decisions
Methods for Quality Improvement
Advanced Topics in Quality Management/Systems
Advanced Topics in Value Creation
Product Development
Business Law for Engineers
Independent Study – Industry Sponsored Projects

The Master of Engineering in Engineering Management Program at CU Boulder effectively bridges the worlds of engineering and business. It opens up new worlds of opportunities for those with an engineering-heavy or more technical background to bolster their quantitative and problem-solving abilities with the management and leadership skills that can take them to new professional heights with their current employer or allow them to pivot to new opportunities.

“We’re very intentional with this Program about ensuring the material is applicable and useful in terms of what’s happening in business and industry. Our faculty bring substantial professional experience and can make assignments authentic and relevant,” Svoboda says. “Another benefit that sets our Program apart is our setting in Boulder. I don’t think there’s a better environment for someone interested in an engineering startup or to collaborate, be mentored, or get advice from a very engaged local community. Getting a coffee with a top venture capitalist is fairly easy to do in Boulder. Not a lot of places can say that.”

The Program is offered through the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU Boulder, which was founded in 1893 and is widely recognized among the top colleges for engineering in the country.

As a student in the Master of Engineering in Engineering Management Program, you’ll be able to choose from both on-campus and online course offerings. In fact, more than one-third of students in the Program complete their studies entirely online, and more than 60% complete at least a portion of the Program online.

For more information about the master’s in engineering management Program at CU Boulder contact Kendra Thibeault at Kendra.Thibeault@colorado.edu or call 303-492-0954.

Masters in Engineering Management vs. MBA: how to determine which program is the best fit and which degree can help your career stand out.

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Sustainability seed grant builds new partnership between CU Boulder and Tuskegee University

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Aug 2021 15:05:08 +0000

Sustainability seed grant builds new partnership between CU Boulder and Tuskegee University Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 08/20/2021 - 09:05

Jessica Rush Leeker and researchers at CU Boulder and Tuskegee University are working together to create a hands-on "living learning laboratory” for students to connect through a long-term sustainability and equity project. The partnership would provide students with a unique interdisciplinary and community engagement effort with many lasting benefits when successfully established.

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EMP Alumnus Chris Muldrow named new director of the Smead Program

Anonymous — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:28:54 +0000

EMP Alumnus Chris Muldrow named new director of the Smead Program Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 04/16/2021 - 10:28

EMP Alumnus Chris Muldrow (ME Engineering Management 2010) was named director of the University of Colorado Boulder Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences Smead Program. As director, Muldrow will provide strategic direction and leadership for the nationally recognized program.

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