There has been increased interest in using problem-based pedagogies to enable design engineering undergraduates obtain a more relevant learning experience. Furthermore organizations, such as Engineers Ireland, are calling for graduate engineers to have more rounded skills in the areas of presentation, communication and team-work. However some scholars argue that design “is hard to learn and harder still to teach”. This paper provides an example of using student-industry collaboration in the teaching of product design to Mechanical Engineering final year students at the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) based in Ireland. The work proposes to make an original contribution by directly interfacing with industry in order to simulate a real-life client-designer interaction for students. Finally we argue that this work contributes new insights to the debate on “pedagogies of engagement”.

Todays’ product development process is characterized by an increasing use of embedded software solutions integrated into mechatronic products. The development is more and more translocated into a virtual environment. New software methods and tools have to be developed. Industry 4.0 is an approach to highlight the tendency of modern development. Communication between smart products, communication via internet technologies, cyber-physical systems and the Internet of Things are the basis of Industry 4.0. Owing this development, used project management methodologies have to be adjusted. In special the well-known V-Model is now extended to the W-Model to cope with the new requirements like communications between different disciplines. New approaches in virtual development have to be adapted to modern teaching techniques. Therefore a course for first semester mechanical engineering students is conducted by the department of Computer Integrated Design at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. Industry 4.0 fundamentals are taught as well as the development process underlying the so called W-Model. The students will apply this knowledge while they participate in exercises. A web-based tutorial is provided every week with different learning packages. With these learning packages, the students learn to use the project management techniques as well as software development techniques to solve different tasks. Later complex data structures and algorithms can be coded and are applied. The software development techniques, established in development of information technologies, gets more important in mechanical engineering. Therefore the students learn these aspects. Over three months length the students work in groups and use all their skills to realize a bigger software-project — a digital factory. They use a virtual testing environment (ViTMeS 3.0) to develop their solution. The presented ViTMeS 3.0 is a further development of a virtual testing environment used in last year’s team work. Later they can test their code with a real life example. This example, the digital factory, built with LEGO Mindstorms, is an important part of teaching students the foundations of communication and information techniques as well as software development and programming skills. The last step of the team work is the coding of a graphical user interface for appropriate visualization.

Student Team Challenges on specific topics are growing in popularity as efficient ways to stimulate students’ independent work, technical and management learning as well as socialization and internationalization. Many competitions are focused on ground vehicles (SAE Formula, Motostudent, Shell Eco Marathon, Solar Challenge), with different focuses on performance, fuel consumption or other depending on the aim of the event. An interesting approach is proposed in the United States by the ASME HPV Challenge, which is focused on Human Powered Vehicles. This class of vehicles allows not only to set-up a classical competition in terms of design, innovation, presentation, manufacturing and racing, but also to grow the student awareness about speed-energy relation. An HPV gives to the rider a direct feedback on a “human-scale” about energy quantities involved in personal mobility. The main returns by the use of this specific topic for a student challenge are: better understanding of the sustainable mobility problem, awareness about the potential and the limits of human muscular power, development of technical skills about design and engineering of lightweight and efficient vehicles, stimulation of the HPVs market development (the students are both potential future designers/manufacturers and/or customers), promotion of healthy and engaging physical activities. In this context, while Europe is rich of HPVs amateurs and manufacturers and is the usual location of the WHPVA World Championship, there is a lack of an educational framework involving students and teachers. Starting from the end of ZEV-HPV Erasmus Intensive Program 2011–2013, the proposal of creating a specific HPV challenge for the European students was developed by the authors. In particular, it was evaluated that by integrating the Student Challenge in the WHPVA World Championship as a special “Educational” category, many reciprocal advantages could be obtained: logistic and organizational support from the WHPVA and its national representatives, in particular for racing and timing, reciprocal technical and cultural exchange between students, academics and the hundred of amateur rider/designer/builder that were attending the event in the last decade, growth and renewal of the European HPVs community by aggregating young people around the subject and by stimulating the research of innovative solutions. After an in-depth analysis of the arguments reported above, an overview of the rules for the 1st edition of EU HPV Student Challenge will be presented and compared to analogous international competitions from an educational perspective.

The increasing engineering accreditation program requirements for outcome based assessment, combined with emphasis on green energy and other sustainable technologies, prompted introduction of a solar panel tracking project within a senior product design course. Recognizing that the course is offered to students with mechanical engineering as well as software engineering (mechatronics) backgrounds, technical aspects emphasized three dimensional Computer Aided Design (CAD), rapid prototyping, and basic microcontroller interface electronics and programming. Mixed teams including students from both backgrounds were mandatory. This paper reports observations after three course offerings. In particular, it is noted that a paradigm shift away from lectures to hands-on development laboratories is needed, but formal laboratory milestones and submission deadlines remain essential for successful team project completion.

The software tools for PLM and project management are often built around several classical concepts: Processes, Activities, Phases, Artefacts, Workflows, Resources and Relationships. This approach does not really consider the team concept and the particular dynamics of the project management. This leads to a paradox with PLM and project management software tools. They tend to reduce risk and improve performance by structuring, streamlining, automating and scheduling projects without considering projects are not well-structured and have their own dynamic. The negation of project management mode increases the risks of project failures, adds stress to team members and requires the addition of complex mechanisms of collaboration and delegation. PLM Software sometimes becomes a limitation for project management. Our partner, LASCOM, a French PLM software developer, decided to make evolve its solutions to provide customers more efficient PLM solutions. LASCOM initiated a reflection around new concepts for enrich its existing models and tools since few years. The company particularly has an interest on the practical use of the concepts of roles and contexts. This paper deals with the addition of these concepts in the models used by LASCOM. This addition is intended to partially solve the problems posed by the generalization of work by project in organizations.

This paper lies within the integration of an eco-design method adapted to the Innovation structure at a car manufacturer. The environmental constraints in the automotive industry are more and more important (European emission standards for exhaust emissions, European directive on end-of life vehicles …). Eco-design is a new manner to design products related to the concept of sustainable development, which combines economy and ecology and put the environmental criterion alongside the classical criterions of design. The goal of this study is to identify the specifications of a strategy for integrating the dimension “Environment”. This strategy is applied in the innovation process thanks to eco-design tools which are the learning vectors for an organization, and therefore support a learning process. This process is structured with the interactions between the management of firm, the environment department, and the design team. Therefore we first make a synthesis of the different classifications of eco-design tools and use two categories: diagnosis and improvement. Second, as our goal is the integration in the Innovation structure and within a design process, we analyze some design process models and highlight the RID (Research, Innovation structure, Development) concept. Third, the main practices of several car makers are synthetized and a focus on three of them (Volvo, Ford, and Volkswagen) is made; we link their strategies with the concept of RID. Finally in the fourth part, we propose a model of a strategy for integrating eco-design practices based on the three examples and supported by a learning process.

When designing complex mechatronic systems, a team of developers will be facing many challenges that can impede progress and innovation if not tackled properly. In meeting them simulation tools play a central role. Yet it is often impossible for a single developer to foresee the overall impact a design decision will have on the system and on the other domains involved. For this task multi-domain simulation tools exists, but because of its complexity and the different levels of detail that are needed, the effort to specify a complete system from scratch is very high. Another challenge is the selection of the most suitable solution elements provided by the manufacturers. Currently they are often chosen manually from catalogues. The development engineer is therefore usually inclined to employ well-known solution elements and suppliers. To tackle both challenges our aim is an increase in efficiency and innovation by means of generally available solution knowledge, such as well-proven solution patterns, ready-to-use solution elements, and established simulation models [1]. Our paper presents a tool-supported, sequential design process. From the outset, the comprehensive functional capability of the designed system is supervised by means of multi-domain simulation. At significant points in the design process, solution knowledge can be accessed as it is stored in ontologies and therefore available via Semantic Web [2]. Thus, one can overcome barriers resulting from different terminologies or referential systems and furthermore infer further knowledge from the stored knowledge. The paper focuses on an early testing in the conceptual design stage and on the subsequent semantic search for suitable solution elements. After the specification of a principle solution for the mechatronic system by combining solution patterns, an initial multi-domain model of the system is created. This is done on the basis of the active structure and of idealized simulation models which are part of a free library and associated with the chosen solution patterns via the ontologies. In further designing the controlled system and its parameters with the completed model, the developer defines additional criteria to be fed into the subsequent semantic search for solution elements. Information on the latter is provided by the manufacturers as well as detailed simulation models, which are used to analyze the functional capability of the concretized system. Therefore, the corresponding idealized models are replaced automatically with the parameterized models of the solution elements containing for example the specific friction model for the chosen motor. We show this process using the concrete example of a dough-production system. In particular, we focus on its transport system. Resulting requirements for the simulation models and their level of detail are expound, as well as the architecture and benefits of the ontologies.

Experimentation is a very important part of education in engineering including mechatronics engineering, which is a relatively new field, combining three engineering disciplines: mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and software engineering. The equipments needed for experiments in mechatronics are usually expensive. A solution to make these expensive equipments achievable is to share them with other universities or research centers from different locations in the world. The goal of our team is to build a networked telerobot system so that the Internet users, especially researchers and students, can be able to control an autonomous robot able to explore a dynamic environment remotely from their home and share the robot system with the department. The particularity of the environment, in this case, is that the experiment uses grid lines painted on the floor, for robot navigation purpose. The system which is still under development will be able to increase the number of robots. The communication software technologies are based on PHP. A specific protocol over IP was designed for communication between the server and clients. The aim of this project is oriented toward providing a telerobot system with a high degree of local intelligence in order to overcome restricted bandwidth and transmission delay of the network.

Robots are increasingly being incorporated into the clinical environment. In minimally invasive surgery, robots are used to hold the tools and camera at the operating table while the surgeon performs surgery at a console away from the rest of the surgical team, reducing the opportunity for face-to-face communication. As surgery is a team-oriented process in which surgeons, nurses, and anesthesiologists collaborate to achieve the common goal of delivering care to a patient, any barrier to communication can inhibit the team process required in surgery. This study examined surgeon-nurse spatial communication in a collaborative surgical task in a controlled experiment. It was hypothesized that providing a spatial communication aid would improve performance time and reduce the amount of communication needed for the task. Fifteen dyads of surgeons or novices completed a simulated organ manipulation task using a laparoscopic trainer box in two viewing conditions: aligned (0°) and rotated (90°) camera view. Subjects were divided into 3 experimental groups: control, cardinal directional aid, and grid directional aid. Results show that experts were faster than novices, and the directional aids significantly facilitated task performance. While the volume of communication was not different across the three groups, there was a shift toward a more collaborative style of communication in the cardinal directions and grid conditions. The findings suggest that spatial communication aids can improve performance and promote collaboration in the robotic operating room.

To be successful in one’s profession, an engineer operating in the contemporary globalized world needs to be adequately equipped with suitable management skills. They include talent to plan, implement and manage engineering projects in diverse and pluralistic teams, ability to communicate at different levels, perseverance in the face of failures and crisis, creativeness to improvise innovative solutions, maintenance of physical and mental health, ability to invent and implement eco-friendly engineering solutions, and smartness to work within stipulated time-frames, etc. Large residential student communities prepare suitable context for engineering students to nurture their general management skills, if carefully planned. In the current paper, we present some innovative models and appropriate methods to convert large residential student communities into an arena where students can train themselves in general management skills. It also presents some results of two years of implementation of such methods in a men’s hostel, which accommodates youngsters between 17–19 years of age in their first year of undergraduate engineering study.

The factory as a place of value-adding activities is forced to adapt continuously to turbulent conditions. New requirements regarding flexibility, speed, mobility and cost efficiency are some of factory planning. Hence the role of factory planning has developed from a one-time activity to a continuous management task. To achieve optimal results with regard to the new requirements it is necessary to analyze the existing processes and the functionality of the technical equipment at the workplace in detail. Therefore the existing methods of factory planning have to be improved. This paper focuses on the improvement of factory layout planning methods. One of the main areas of research of the Institute for Production Management and Enterprise Research (IFU) is the participatory layout planning. The goal of the research activities is to develop a method to integrate the employees from the shop-floor level into the planning process since they have special knowledge of the processes and technical equipment, which is necessary to achieve optimized planning results. To support the implementation of the participatory factory planning the IFU — in co-operation with the foresee GmbH — started the development of a participatory planning table called T3Pad (Tangible table top to enhance participation and development). The T3Pad is a conventional conference table with an integrated multi-touch display. The use of a gesture based software for layout planning offers the factory planning team the opportunity to design a layout by using the existing knowledge of the “classic” planning departments as well as the special manufacturing experience of the shop-floor employees. In order to realize the participation of the whole planning team the software has to comply with two major requirements: on the one hand the requirement in terms of the database and rules of factory planning; on the other hand the requirement of the usability of the software interfaces. Until now the users of factory planning methods have to adapt themselves to the function mode of computers instead of interacting and communicating in an intuitive way. This leads to limited interaction between user and hardware. The main goal of the T3Pad is an optimal support of the user by the software interface. To reach this goal the IFU started a field study to analyze the adoption of gesture based software interaction.

A device that levitates a steel ball beneath an electromagnet is used for educational purposes at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Students in the course “Mechatronics” engage in a set of laboratory exercises with the device to reinforce classroom learning. Mechatronics is a senior-level course that introduces the interdisciplinary design of smart systems. Students in the electrical engineering and mechanical engineering programs take the course together, and the material is taught by a team of instructors from both academic departments. The Magnetic Levitation experiments are the primary means of teaching the classical analog control portion of the course. Other aspects of the course involve interfacing microcontrollers with sensors and actuators, and digital control. The magnetic levitation device fits easily on a two-person workbench and requires a power supply and oscilloscope. An infra-red emitter / detector pair is used to sense ball position for a feedback compensator. Students first learn classical control theory in a co-requisite course, “Dynamic Modeling and Control.” Modeling principles are introduced in the context of the magnetic levitation system as an unstable plant to be controlled. The system can be simulated by models ranging from simply linear to more complex to teach the trade-off between model fidelity and model development effort. The students derive the nonlinear governing equations and then linearize the equations and develop the transfer function of the plant. Students design a compensator and simulate the resulting stabilized system with Matlab and Simulink software. Students build their compensator on a solderless project board to levitate the steel ball. A proven lead-type compensator using two resistors and a capacitor is readily provided to students that struggle with their own compensator design so that all teams may enjoy the fruit of a successful experiment. As a laboratory aid, the magnetic levitation system allows for basic and advanced approaches to both theoretical study and practical investigation of a nonlinear, unstable system control. The comparison of measured results to predicted behavior leads to insight about how the physical system is modeled by mathematics. Students write a case study describing the system in detail including characterization of the sensors and actuators. Instructors report that the hands-on nature motivates students to excel. Surveyed students cite the hands-on activities as relevant applications that help develop deeper understanding and greater appreciation for the concepts learned in the classroom. The students are motivated to learn by the fascination of defying gravity.

A distributed approach is proposed for planning a cooperative tracking task for a team of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In the scenario of interest UAVs are required to autonomously track, using their onboard sensors, a moving target in a known urban environment. The solution methodology involves finding visibility regions, from which a UAV can maintain a line of sight to the target during the scenario; and restricted regions, in which a UAV can not fly, due to the presence of buildings or other airspace limitations. A co-evolution genetic algorithm is derived for searching, in realtime, monotonically improving solutions. In the proposed distributed search method every UAV iteratively manipulates its own population of chromosomes, each encoding its control inputs in the calculated horizon. Team performance is attained by assigning fitness to each solution in the population based on the cooperative performance when using it together with preceding iteration tracking information obtained from teammates. Important attributes of the proposed solution approach are its scalability and robustness; and consequently it can be applied to large sized problems and adapt to the loss of UAV team members. The distributed nature of the algorithm also reduces the computation and communication loads. The performance of the algorithm is studied using a high fidelity simulation test-bed incorporating a visual database of the city of Tel-Aviv, Israel.

A growing set of “professional skills” including problem solving, teamwork, and communications are becoming increasingly important in differentiating U.S. engineering graduates from their international counterparts. A consensus of engineering educators and professionals now believes that mastery of these professional skills is needed for our graduates to excel in a highly competitive global environment. A decade ago ABET realized this and included these skills among the eleven outcomes needed to best prepare professionals for the 21st century engineering world. This has left engineering educators with a challenge: how can students learn to master these skills? We address this challenge by focusing on models and modeling as an integrating approach for learning particular professional skills, including problem solving, within the undergraduate curriculum. To do this, we are extending a proven methodology — model-eliciting activities (MEAs) — creating in essence model integrating activities (MIAs). MEAs originated in the mathematics education community as a research tool. In an MEA teams of students address an open-ended, real-world problem. A typical MEA elicits a mathematical or conceptual system as part of its procedural requirements. To resolve an MEA, students may need to make new connections, combinations, manipulations or predictions. We are extending this construct to a format in which the student team must also integrate prior knowledge and concepts in order to solve the problem at hand. In doing this, we are also forcing students to confront and repair certain misconceptions acquired at earlier stages of their education. A distinctive MEA feature is an emphasis on testing, revising, refining and formally documenting solutions, all skills that future practitioners should master. Student performance on MEAs is typically assessed using a rubric to measure the quality of solution. In addition, a reflection tool completed by students following an MEA exercise assists them in better assessing and critiquing their progress as modelers and problem solvers. As part of the first phase a large, MEA research study funded by the National Science Foundation and involving six institutions, we are investigating the strategies students use to solve unstructured problems by better understanding the extent that our MEA/MIA construct can be used as a learning intervention. To do this, we are developing learning material suitable for upper-level engineering students, requiring them to integrate concepts they’ve learned in foundation courses while teasing out misconceptions. We provide an overview of the project and our results to date.

A new discipline has been introduced into today’s multicultural scientific context — Biodesign. Behind the main philosophical concept of Biodesign is the human body; considered a psycho-biological unicum . Research activities aim at developing artificial devices which can be fully integrated into the human body, or rather into the prosthetic human being. During the last decade, the interest of design research and the study of solutions specifically focused on the human being gave rise to a number of disciplines characterized by the prefix “bio”, which comes from the Greek word for life . This prefix may refer to various thematic areas such as: engineering, medicine, architecture, physics and chemistry. These areas can be considered as already well-established disciplines. This means that these sectors have already reached certain solutions that led them to concentrate their efforts on an in-depth study of the human-being, in order to tackle what could be called the “bio” problem. Each discipline, therefore, performs research proposes new solutions, and discusses possible future scenarios in the light of its own particular philosophy. In design along with the other disciplines, a significant movement towards of renewal has been developing with human beings; with their bodies as the hub. The biodesigner, in an attempt to solve the medical-biological problems involved, makes use of industrial design methods, sharing their experience with interdisciplinary teams. Biodesign should not be considered merely design applied to medicine. It may indeed be more clearly defined as an entirely new discipline; whose use of an interdisciplinary approach and close cooperation with the medical-biological sciences are essential to its objective. Biodesign one of the most interesting fields of research currently under way, aimed at innovative application of biorobotic devices, that involves the design and use of new technology, such as MEMS and bioMEMS. This paper gives the research results that were developed in cooperation with two Faculties: Design and Engineering. The main research objective is to identify the intervention area and the role of industrial design in the micro (MEMS) and nanotechnology applications. In particular it’s fundamental in biorobotics to determine both the methodology and the right instruments needed. This paper is divided into two conceptual parts; the first is theoretical and the second is application driven. In the introductory analytical part, theoretical basis are put in order to show the importance of designer cooperation in the micro-technologies study and in their innovative applications. Designers can make cooperation amongst experts easier, co-ordinating design process’ among several research fields and skills. In the first part; problems, complexities, application fields and design methodologies connected to biorobotic devices are highlighted. The second part of the research is developed with the methodology defined by C. Fryling as “through (o by)”. This methodology is a research approach done throughout projects and lead by experience. One case history is used to demostrate such an approach.

Attracting students to engineering is a challenge. In addition, ABET requires that engineering graduates be able to work on multi-disciplinary teams and apply mathematics and science when solving engineering problems. One manner of integrating teamwork and engineering contexts in a first-year foundation engineering course is through the use of Model-Eliciting Activities (MEAs) — realistic, client-driven problems based on the models and modeling theoretical framework. A Model-Eliciting Activity (MEA) is a real-world client-driven problem. The solution of an MEA requires the use of one or more mathematical or engineering concepts that are unspecified by the problem — students must make new sense of their existing knowledge and understandings to formulate a generalizable mathematical model that can be used by the client to solve the given and similar problems. An MEA creates an environment in which skills beyond mathematical abilities are valued because the focus is not on the use of prescribed equations and algorithms but on the use of a broader spectrum of skills required for effective engineering problem-solving. Carefully constructed MEAs can begin to prepare students to communicate and work effectively in teams; to adopt and adapt conceptual tools; to construct, describe, and explain complex systems; and to cope with complex systems. MEAs provide a learning environment that is tailored to a more diverse population than typical engineering course experiences as they allow students with different backgrounds and values to emerge as talented, and that adapting these types of activities to engineering courses has the potential to go beyond “filling the gaps” to “opening doors” to women and underrepresented populations in engineering. Further, MEAs provide evidence of student development in regards to ABET standards. Through NSF-funded grants, multiple MEAs have been developed and implemented with a MSE-flavored nanotechnology theme. This paper will focus on the content, implementation, and student results of one of these MEAs.

This paper summarizes the activities, contents and overall outcomes of our experiences with international project teams working with different engineering projects, in particular the Interdisciplinary Project on fourth semester (TVP4E). The TVP4E course combines the theory and practical design of small autonomous robots. The theoretical part includes mathematical modeling, system dynamics, control theory, digital and analogue electronics, and microprocessors. The practical project is to design an autonomous robot performing two tasks: compulsory task decided by the teachers and the free task decided by students. The success of this particular fourth semester project inspired us to start other international project semesters. Globalization makes it necessary to cooperate on an international platform. A great contributor to globalization is the student mobility program within the EU, like the Socrates-Erasmus program. At the Copenhagen University College of Engineering we have more then 50 active Socrates-Erasmus agreements. Beside that we have bilateral agreements with many non-European countries. Usually the exchange students come to us after 2–3 years of studying in their home countries. Their prerequisites are in most cases the basics of mathematics and physics, but there is very big variety in their practical skills, like electronics and programming. Some of them do not have much experience in working with projects. The challenge of supervising the international teams is to motivate the students with different prerequisites to study the theory and work together with other students from very different cultures with a practical engineering project. In conclusion we describe the benefits from this program to all of us: students, teachers and the universities.

As the future of engineering education emphasizes more interdisciplinary work and more work performed in teams, one logical starting point for this evolution is for faculty from different academic departments to work together. Engineering educators cannot ignore the real world’s shifting focus to interdisciplinary engineering, and they should adapt as well. Similar to the total engineering process as a team effort, the engineering education process also benefits from excellent communications among a diversity of team members. This paper highlights a classical dynamical modeling and controls course with students from two different disciplines: electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Faculty from both departments teach every semester. Sections are assigned to individual instructors but all activities are planned jointly. Course administration is the role of a course director and this role alternates between the two departments each semester. Responsibilities throughout the semester are shared between the instructors. This organizational structure is important, allowing the interdisciplinary faculty team to synchronize their efforts, each contributing their individual strengths and resources to promote student learning and faculty development. The instructors engage in meaningful dialogue concerning their assignments, lesson preparations, laboratory exercises, and their results. The information flow between instructors from different departments encourages faculty learning by pushing the instructors beyond their own discipline. This paper provides details that illustrate the structure and benefits of the course. Advantages to empowering an interdisciplinary faculty are also described. The approach described allows the students to benefit from the work of an interdisciplinary faculty team enriching the students’ understanding through real world projects and examples that have aspects of multiple disciplines.

This paper discusses the role and significance of robot competitions in engineering education with focus on experiences with the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, a mature international event that has attracted teams from more than 115 universities around the world. We consider development of effective learning environments for robot design projects, including first-year undergraduate engineering design courses and upper-level robot research and development teams. With regard to the latter, we describe our instructional strategies of choosing team projects, imparting competences and teamwork skills, reporting results, and assessing progress. We also consider achievement of ABET outcomes through competition-based design projects, and means to maximize student self-efficacy beliefs through mastery experiences in robotics. Finally we present methods for effective assessment and evaluation.

Educators and employers have traditionally worked together to identify engineering skills which require ongoing updating and upgrading in order to avoid obsolescence. That, along with the need to work successfully in multidisciplinary environments, has become increasingly critical in staying competitive in the face of rapidly changing technology and current trends toward outsourcing of engineering jobs. Mechanical engineers, specifically, are continuously confronted with the requirement to maintain proficiency in CAD and FEA tools, evolving multiplicity of design materials and fabrication processes and increased sophistication of design components. Another aspect of a successful engineer entails the ability to communicate with both engineers and non-engineers who frequently are in positions to approve or cancel projects which may affect success and/or survival of the company where engineers work. A recent survey was conducted of engineering alumni of the mechanical engineering program at California State University, Fullerton spanning a period of close to four decades to assess if and how these graduates managed to stay current and the degree of success achieved in this continuing endeavor. The survey evaluated ways and means of these efforts and the employers’ attitudes and support, or lack thereof, towards such efforts. Also the surveys examined alumni experiences of working in multidisciplinary and multinational teams. Relationships between continued education and success in pursuit of the career of alumni were examined. Implications of these findings to engineers, academic institutions and industry were discussed with particular interest in the roles that educational institutions and professional societies play in the career of engineers.