Fall 2013: EMGT 4110 Engineering Professionalism and Practice (2 Cr.)
Lecture: 10:00 - 10:50 am (T) ENGR 290
Lab: 10:00 – 11:50 am (Th); ENGR 290
Instructor: Jose Carrillo, CMfgE
Office: 182 Voss-Kovach Hall
Office Hours: 10:00 –11:00 Monday, 2:00 – 3:00 Wednesday or by appointment
Web page: http://www.d.umn.edu/~jcarrill/
E-mail: jcarrill@d.umn.edu
Phone: 218-269-6825 (Cell); 726-6161 (MIE Office); 726-8596 (MIE Fax)
The Unwritten Laws of Engineering, W. J. King, W.J., and James G. Skakoon, ASME
Press 2001.
Required
Intellectual Property: A Guide for Engineers, ASME Press, 2001.
Textbooks:
Memory Jogger II, Brassard, Michael and Diane Ritter, Goal/QPC 1994.
Project Management Memory Jogger, Martin, Paula and Karen Tate, Goal/QPC 1997.
BSChE or BSECE or BSIE or BSME candidate within 2 semesters of graduation;
Prerequisites: Instructor approval; no Grad School credit; credit will not be granted if credit received
for IE 4155 or ME 4155
Course Objectives
When you complete this course it is hoped that you will have learned professional and ethical
expectations of being an engineer, including teamwork, project management, design, decision
making, and social impacts of engineering. Students should take Multidisciplinary Senior Design in
their last semester, with EMgt 4110 as close to it as possible to be able to utilize the skills
introduced in this class.
Program Outcomes (ABET)
The BSIE/BSEM outcomes achieved and assessed by this course as follows:
 An ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams (d)
 An understanding of the professional and ethical responsibilities of an industrial/mechanical
engineer (f)
 An ability to communicate effectively, including oral, written and visual forms (g)
 A recognition of the need for, and the ability to engage in life-long learning (i)
Grading
 Final Grade Breakdown: The overall grade is based on two exams (100 points each), a
project report covering social, environmental, political, ethical, and other contemporary
issues (60 points), article presentation (40 points), team and individual assignments (5 or 10
points each), and two out of class requirements (25 points each). Be ready to actively
participate! Late assignments will not be accepted. Exams will not be given late without
prior approval.
 Individual Project Report: This major assignment will allow you to delve deeper into the
legal, ethical, social, economic, environmental, or international perspectives of engineering.
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
You are expected to have six different articles from different sources, with one from each
week from now until mid-November. For each article, you should prepare a brief synopsis,
followed by your interpretation of how it impacts engineering, your career, or the
intersection of engineering with society along one of the non-quantitative aspects noted
above. Articles can follow a theme or they can cover a range of subjects and aspects. There
is no shortage of great ideas! This assignment is detailed at the end of the syllabus.
Special out-of-class requirements: Part of life-long learning is essentially, “knowing that
there is always more to know.” You are required to attend at least two out of class events to
help expand your personal and/or professional knowledge. Following are examples of events
being offered by career services this semester:
 E-Fest: an Engineering, Computer Science and Science Career Fair
 The Head of the Lakes Job and Internship Fair
 Workshops covering topics such as preparing for job fairs, exploring graduate school,
preparing for the GRE, and other topics related to professional development.
Other events can be attended, such as an industry-related lecture, a political event, or a
section meeting for a professional organization. For each event you attend, prepare and
submit a short report (less than one page) to document the program description, and your
opinion of the event—i.e., what you gained from the experience, whether you learned
something from it, how it might help you in your personal/professional life, how it might
have been more helpful, etc. The two events you report on should be different from each
other (e.g., if you go to two job fairs, you can only report on one of them; you must then
choose a different type of event for your second report).
Policies
 Attendance: As an interactive course which meets only twice a week, you will get the most
out of it when you are present. Unexcused absences will result in a lowered grade.
Absences can be excused in advance for items such as participation in official UMD events,
ASME and IIE requirements, and family emergencies; whether an absence is excusable is at
the sole discretion of the instructor.
 Test Make-up Policy: If your schedule will not allow you to take midterm or final exams
on the specified dates and times, you must make arrangement with the instructor to take
your test prior to the test date. If you fail to make arrangements and take the test after the
test date/time, your score for that test will be 80% of your test score.
 Participation: We can learn a lot from other people, so please contribute! Work hard and
have a good time at it! This should be a fun class where we can all learn a lot from each
other as well as from the required work.
 Work Ethic: I expect each student to read all suggested material, make a good effort at all
assigned work, and be prepared for class. There will be time to work on many assignments
during the lab time, but you will need to spend additional time outside of class to complete
assignments, projects, readings, etc. Late work will not be accepted.
 Academic Integrity: Cheating on an examination will result in an “F” on the examination
with a score of 0. The policy of the University and the College of Science and Engineering
will be followed, so that the incident will be officially reported. If this is the second such
incident for the student in the system, I will assign an “F” to the student for the course and
recommend academic dismissal from the University of Minnesota.
 Cell Phones/Email: Only in very rare circumstances is taking a cell phone call or checking
email in class appropriate. Turn cell phones off—not just to silent mode. Also, turn laptops
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off unless we are specifically working on something in class that warrants its use. You can
check your messages or text message after class.
Disabilities: It is University policy to provide, on a flexible and individualized basis,
reasonable accommodations to students who have disabilities that may affect their ability to
participate in course activities or to meet course requirements. Students with disabilities are
encouraged to contact their instructors to discuss their individual needs for accommodations.
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Tentative Schedule
Week
1
2
3
Tentative Topics
Introduction to engineering professionalism &
practice
Résumés, cover letters, interviewing skills
Personal style inventory &
skills assessment
Job description, résumé &
cover letter
Career planning, lifelong learning issues, professional
Guest speaker
development, personality styles
Personality inventory paper
4
Project management
5
Project management wrap-up
Exam 1 (Thursday)
Library research skills
Communication, group dynamics, team building
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Lab / Assignment Due
Project analysis
Organizational structures, culture, conflict, politics;
Engineering design
Decision making tools
Problem solving
Individual article presentations
Individual article presentations
Introduction to ethics/law/social responsibility
Thanksgiving
Introduction to the law
Intellectual property
Ethics
Social, safety, and environmental issues
Course wrap up
Exam 1
Team building exercise
Design activity
Team design presentation
Problem solving case study
Student presentations
Student presentations
Thanksgiving?
Law assignment
Ethics assignment
Evaluation forms
Final Exam
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EMGT 4110 Project Report
Background
As a soon-to-be engineer, you should be looking around the outside world to see what engineers are
doing in and out of the profession, what is going on the world that impacts engineers and the
profession, and what is going on that might have a profound impact on your career. You should
take note of a variety of sources and do it on a regular basis; this is known as “boundary spanning.”
Requirements
 Approach: Topics and articles should focus on ideas presented in the professionalism class;
e.g., legal, ethical, social, economic, environmental, or international perspectives. You may
decide that you want a theme (developments in the sporting goods industry, how engineers
are involved internationally, or how ethical situations are currently transpiring, for example).
Conversely, you may want to do a “sampler platter” that has articles involving many
different topics (personal investing, selecting the “best car,” development of infrastructure in
Afghanistan, the ethics of designing levees in New Orleans for a Class 3 hurricane,
developments in engineering outside the U.S., engineers in politics, etc.). Either approach is
fine, as long as you can explain why you chose it.
 Project Pace: You need to have six (6) articles spanning a 10 week period. Do one every
other week and do not wait until the end! The final report is due Thursday, November 12.
 Article Summary: For each article, prepare a synopsis of what the article is about. Have a
section on what you learned from this article and how it has broadened your understanding
of engineering or the role of engineering in society. Each summary should be 1-2 pages
long. Attach the article (or a photocopy) to your summary.
 Report Summary: Once all articles have been summarized, prepare a summary of your
approach to the assignment (methodology) and your findings and conclusions.
 Sources of Information: Select a variety of sources. You are required to choose a different
source for each article, and at least one (1) must come from an international source (BBC
and CBC are quite good, but you might want to try something in a foreign language to get a
broader perspective; alternatives might include Svenska Dagbladet from Sweden, Die Zeit
from Germany, El Universal from Mexico, or El Mundo from Spain.)
 Bibliography: Cite your work. Be sure to include the dates on the copies of the articles you
include. In the case of printing articles off the web, include the date of your printing and the
website address in the header or footer. A formal bibliography should be included in your
final report.
 Article Presentation: One particular article should be about the recent advancement in your
interested industry or job field, or is related to your senior design project (for example, fuel
cell strategy in energy industry). You will be presenting the contents of this particular
article, and your personal views of it, for the class in mid-November.
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