Development of Leadership and Communication Skills in an Experiential Learning Project Management Course

Abstract

Engineering students are equipped with technical knowledge and skills in order to solve real-world problems. However, it has become increasingly clear that engineering students also require training in non-technical skills beyond the technical knowledge and analytical skills traditionally taught in engineering undergraduate problems. These non-technical skills allow students to understand the social, political, economic, cultural, environmental, and ethical aspects of their future jobs[1]. The development of leadership is especially important for students who wish to pursue management careers including project management (PM) which is a highly needed and promising career path. Few undergraduate students are exposed to PM during their undergraduate curriculum, and most PM courses are based on literature and reading. The National Research Council Board on Engineering education noted that undergraduate curriculum needs to be reformed in order for undergraduates to get extensive exposure to interdisciplinary, hands-on skills, creative design, and systems thinking[2]. At the University of Massachusetts Lowell, an experiential learning project management course was developed in order to introduce students to PM and to develop their leadership skills. In this course, upper-level Biomedical Engineering students in a PM course are each paired with 3-4 first-year students in an Introduction to Biomedical Engineering course as the team goes through a semester long project to design, research, and prototype a need. These PMs are responsible for goal setting, planning, risk assessment, and conflict management. In this paper, the experiences of twenty-four PMs are analyzed qualitatively via analysis of end-of semester reflection assignments. Common themes that emerged included the need for good communication, defining the PM's roles and responsibilities, the need for organization, the need to be adaptable to organic group dynamics, and the friend/leader balance.