CDIO Syllabus Survey: Systems Engineering an Engineering Education for Government

During the spring of 2010, approximately 300 hiring managers working for the US Navy participated in the CDIO survey sampling the desired engineering skills and proficiencies for their workforce of over 30,000 scientists and engineers. The survey results will support engineering education reform initiatives spanning engineering schools across the country, particularly those in which the Navy directly invests. Sponsors sought an opportunity to send a clear “demand signal” to the academic community to promote engineering education reforms and help them align their programs with projected workforce needs. This application is novel in several regards. First, the survey collected data spanning a very large government agency employed in the development of high technology systems. Secondly, data was sought regarding the desired attributes of both new-hires, direct from undergraduate programs, and mid-career individuals, to better distinguish the attributes sought from graduate programs serving the US Government. Finally, adaptations of the traditional CDIO survey method were implemented, several of which were beneficial, yielding interesting results, and at least one which was problematic.