Los Angeles IIE Sr. Chapter
IE Student / Young Professional Focus Group
July 27, 2004
Opening Questions
Question
Why IE?
Why that
school?
Program
strong
points?
Capstone
experience?
Cal
Changed into
it.
Recruited
(swimmer)
Small dept.
Relationships
with profs.
Not enough
practical
experience
Semester
company
project.
SLO
Pomona
Read about it.
Wanted
creativity &
math
Location. Rep
visit
Age 26
discovered IE
Found out
about it
Purdue
Brother is IE
Penn State
Intro to
engineering
class
USC
Convenience
Prestige
Big school w/
options
Big school w/
band
Real projects
+ Projects &
small dept.
- scheduling
+ Frosh
summer
program
- intense first
year/ attrition
+ Freshman
engineering.
Size
- focus
choices
+ Mix of
experiences
- Choice of
electives
2 quarter
company
project.
Results
oriented
2 quarter
industry
project
Semester
company
group project
Senior
electives.
Individual
project
2 semester
company
group project
Observations and Remarks –
 Word of mouth very common story. Traditional recruiting not very instrumental in exposing
students to IE.
 Students seem to value real projects and small departments.
 Choices of electives and scheduling options desirable.
 Many capstone experiences involved industrial projects.
Teamwork training
Interview Summary –
 Students reported lots of team activities, but that there were some different types of
experiences and recommended some enhancements.
 “Forced” teams where the instructor assigned the teams were more realistic and made you a
better leader because you had to learn how to make the different personalities and skills
blend together.
 Multidisciplinary teams were uncommon, but desirable because it requires a different skill
set to bring together the different disciplines. You have to learn how other disciplines think.
 Learning how to get information from other teams is also a skill that is important but not
many opportunities existed to practice it.
 Team projects need to give you experience in handling unstructured situations as well as
structured ones.

One student commented that competing teams from within one discipline created intense
competition. He was not sure how beneficial that was because in a real company teams
would be cooperating with each other.
Observations and Remarks –
 Faculty really need to assess the type of teamwork experience they are trying to accomplish
any time they choose to use teams. Is the goal to improve internal teamwork skills,
interdisciplinary teamwork skills, data gathering skills, etc.
 The use of interdisciplinary teams is difficult to arrange within a major, so more thought
needs to be given to the importance and placement in the curriculum. Perhaps we need to
look to GE to find the venue for interdisciplinary team opportunities.
Communications
Interview Summary –
 Not enough emphasis on “understanding” what is being communicated. “Effective”
communication.
 In business communication not enough emphasis on understanding who you are writing to
Observations and Remarks  When we say communications we often think of making effective presentations rather that
“two way” communication skills and understanding our audience.
 How do we incorporate this in our curriculum and objectively assess the level of
understanding of the audience in communication situations?
Business Skills
Interview Summary  All had a course in engineering economics and most had a course in accounting.
 Only the two students who had two or more courses in accounting said they had any ability
to use what they learned. One student had a business minor and one had taken a course in
managerial accounting.
 All the others said they learned the business material but never used them later in the
curriculum
Observations and Remarks –
 Engineering economics is often a senior level course and is not a pre-requisite for any other
courses.
 Students do not have a place in their curriculum to apply what they have learned.
 Most EGR 403 instructors at Cal Poly Pomona do not give a significant project. Only one
gives a team project.
 Use of accounting is not emphasized very much in the curriculum. We think the students
know it, but in truth they do not.
 Consider more case studies that use accounting and finance concepts.
Co-curricular Activities
Interview Summary –
 Visiting companies. Field trips.
 Guest speakers & professional interaction.
 Hard to be a club officer if you coop.
 Coop program where coop students share experiences with each other afterward.
 Many bad professional club meetings. Clubs need goals.
 Regional conferences.
 Concrete canoe.
 Need added value.
 Sports.
 Event planning was frustrating, but learned a lot.
 Most positive co-curricular activities were outside major: Band, swimming, club volleyball
 Outside co-curricular activities brought balance and relaxation.
Observations and Comments –
 Professional society/club activities did not receive kudos from the panel. Most were not high
ranking officers.
 Activity in sports, band, or coop program appears to have a major impact on student’s ability
to benefit from professional societies and clubs.
 Not clear if faculty understands where the benefits are coming from in professional
society/club activities.
 Students desire active, value-added opportunities from clubs.
 Students seem to enjoy co-curricular activities outside their major for balance and fun.