july 2009 issue
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Where the Good Managers Come From
The working engineer and the full-time student are both well served by the University of Alberta’s Engineering Management Program, which attracts strong enrolments in good economic times and bad.
EM comes out of an overall need for mid-career engineers to improve their management skills, says Dr. Peter Flynn, P.Eng., Poole Chair in Management for Engineers.
Many engineers advance more quickly than they’re prepared for, often ending up in management jobs relatively early in their careers. This was particularly true when Alberta’s economy was thriving, says Dr. Flynn, who won the APEGGA Community Service Summit Award this year.
With the employment situation not as vibrant as it was, it’s a perfect time for engineers to upgrade, Dr. Flynn notes.
Open to engineers of all disciplines — students must have a bachelor’s degree in engineering — the program offers one non-thesis and two thesis degrees. The non-thesis degree is a master of engineering in engineering management. Primarily designed for working engineers, it can be taken part time or full time.
Says Dr. Flynn: “This program is aimed at giving students flexibility in the courses they choose.”
The non-thesis program includes nine courses and a capstone project equivalent to an additional three-credit course. One course must be taken from a selection of alternatives in each of four core areas, and a student can tailor the balance of the program to meet individual interests and needs. Up to one third of courses can be taken in technical rather than management areas.
Part-time students typically finish the degree in two to five years; students who take one course a term for the fall and winter term would need five years. Full-time students can complete the degree in 12 to 18 months.
Thesis programs involve research and lead to a master of science degree in engineering management or a PhD in engineering management. These are both typically full-time commitments, taking 18 months and longer to fulfill.
The EM program was active in the early 1990s, but budget cuts temporarily removed it from the U of A calendar. It was reactivated in 1999 with a large incoming class in 2000, and has been going strong ever since.
Currently, EM has 65 graduate students in the program — 37 working towards their M.Eng., 16 their M.Sc. and 13 their PhD. An additional 76 students have completed the program since 2000. Of those, 55 attained their M.Eng., 15 their M.Sc. and six their PhD.
Two new staff members recently joined the program, and a large complement of sessional instructors and adjunct professors are part of the program as well. Dr. John Whittaker, who helped build the program, retired in 2005 but continues to contribute, including teaching two courses.
One of the newer additions is APEGGA applicant Dr. Yosheng Ma, an associate professor, who this summer has been in South Korea teaching computer-aided production engineering. Before joining U of A, he was with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, as an associate professor for seven years. He’s also worked as a research manager at Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology, between 1996 and 2000.
Dr. Ma’s research and expertise cover intelligent design and manufacturing, collaborative engineering, project lifecycle management, plastic injection mould design and more. He teaches a course in engineering design for the EM program.
Engineers bring much to the table in management positions, Dr. Ma says. “The advantage they have is the solid engineering training in tackling complex problems. They use a sound scientific approach, employing an in-depth understanding of mathematics and physics.
“However, management also requires the bigger picture of collaboration and lifecycle prospects, so their decisions stand the test of time. My engineering design course puts engineers into the reality of these challenges.
“They can manage a project completely under a safe haven — a place where they can afford to fall and then pick themselves up.”
MORE INFO
www.engineering.ualberta.ca/mece/EngManagement.cfm
Dr. Peter Flynn, P.Eng.
peter.flynn@ualberta.ca
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