TY - JOUR
T1 - Changing the manufacturing perception of millennial and generation Z engineering students
AU - Lynch, Paul C.
AU - Wilck, Joseph
AU - Gaughan, Elizabeth
N1 - Funding Information:
Dr. Joe Wilck is a Faculty Director of Business Analytics and Clinical Associate Professor of Business Analytics at the College of William & Mary. He is a registered Professional Engineer. He is a volunteer leader with the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE) and the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). He is also an active member of INFORMS, MORS, INCOSE, ASEM, and TRB. His research is in the areas of applied optimization and STEM education, and he has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, DARPA, and the North Carolina Department of Transportation; among others. He primarily teaches courses in analytics, operations research, supply chain, operations management, and logistics.
Publisher Copyright:
© American Society for Engineering Education, 2019
PY - 2019/6/15
Y1 - 2019/6/15
N2 - Over five years of work in an industrial engineering manufacturing process course has been carried out to understand engineering undergraduate student perceptions of manufacturing in the United States. This paper discusses a holistic approach being taken in an industrial engineering program to understand Millennial and Generation Z student manufacturing perception while working to get students interested in manufacturing careers through coursework, internships, and co-op experiences. The generation divisions are often argued about, but Millennials are generally thought of as being born from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s with Generation Z following. Millennials can be defined as those born from 1981 to 1996, with Generation Z following from 1997 on. The results of over five years of questionnaire data shows that a well-designed manufacturing processes course equipped with hands-on labs, plant visits, and manufacturing job fairs can be effective in changing student's perception of manufacturing. It is also shown that campus location may play a key part in industrial engineering student knowledge of manufacturing and the percentage of students completing internships and co-ops in manufacturing. Data was collected across two campuses within the same U.S. University where both campuses offer B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering. The enrollment at the two campuses and manufacturing footprint around the two campuses are significantly different and this is discussed with the results of the survey data.
AB - Over five years of work in an industrial engineering manufacturing process course has been carried out to understand engineering undergraduate student perceptions of manufacturing in the United States. This paper discusses a holistic approach being taken in an industrial engineering program to understand Millennial and Generation Z student manufacturing perception while working to get students interested in manufacturing careers through coursework, internships, and co-op experiences. The generation divisions are often argued about, but Millennials are generally thought of as being born from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s with Generation Z following. Millennials can be defined as those born from 1981 to 1996, with Generation Z following from 1997 on. The results of over five years of questionnaire data shows that a well-designed manufacturing processes course equipped with hands-on labs, plant visits, and manufacturing job fairs can be effective in changing student's perception of manufacturing. It is also shown that campus location may play a key part in industrial engineering student knowledge of manufacturing and the percentage of students completing internships and co-ops in manufacturing. Data was collected across two campuses within the same U.S. University where both campuses offer B.S. degrees in Industrial Engineering. The enrollment at the two campuses and manufacturing footprint around the two campuses are significantly different and this is discussed with the results of the survey data.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078720866&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85078720866&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference article
AN - SCOPUS:85078720866
SN - 2153-5965
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 126th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition: Charged Up for the Next 125 Years, ASEE 2019
Y2 - 15 June 2019 through 19 June 2019
ER -