Impact of Industrial Partnership Experience on Engineering Education: Case Study with Boeing Company

The objective of the Boeing - A. D. Welliver Faculty Summer Fellowship is to impact on the content of engineering education in the U.S. Universities and Colleges in ways that will better prepare future engineering graduates for the practice of engineering in a world-class industrial environment. To accomplish this noble objective, every year since 1995, the Boeing Company competitively selects ten Faculty Fellows across the nation's Universities to visit Boeing operations in Seattle, Philadelphia, Huntsville and Wichita. Thus, the ten Faculty Fellows are exposed to the key elements of industrial competitiveness and the practice of engineering by enabling them to "look over the shoulders" of working engineers at several levels of the technical and management career paths. The program allows Faculty Fellows leave Boeing with an appreciation for their customers’ needs and to form a netw ork of contacts with engineers and scientists within Boeing Company for the purpose of research and development. I had the opportunity to work and do joint research with sixty engineers and five managers at Boeing during the fellowship program.