• Question: What factors would you consider in building an engineering department from scratch?

    Asked by Sarah N x to Ashley, Catherine, John G, Laura, Ray on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Laura Tobin

      Laura Tobin answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      No, it’d be too much effort. I’d work at reforming and adapting. The basics and core of engineering will never change (equations, laws, fundamentals), however the technology has. We need to teach engineering students the basic of engineering and the new areas of technology that are opening up.

    • Photo: John Ging

      John Ging answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Engineering dept? In a school? or business?
      1. Get young (but clever) people as the are the most important aspect of any engineering dept.
      2. Give the clever people a budget that is less than half of what they need.
      3. If its the right people, watch them put something together that about five times better than what you’d expected. (if its the wrong people, refer to step 1)

    • Photo: Ray Alcorn

      Ray Alcorn answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      hi Sarah

      well I kinda did this in both my last 2 jobs. In both cases it was get the right people with the right skills and motivation that fitted with the team… oh and also make sure that you have the funding to pay for them!

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