A Research Of Engineering Leadership Development Education Program Of The American University

With the continuous development of China’s manufacturing industry, service industryand foreign trade in recent years, China has become the second largest economy in the world,but China is still stalled in the "Made in China".Whether our country can move from the"manufacturing" countries to "create" countries, engineering and technical personnel trainingis the key factor. So only cultivating a global leader with exceptional creative ability, practicalability, excellent leadership and management capacity, this goal of our country could bepossible to achieve. Many countries in the world have realized the importance of engineeringleadership, and they are also taking it into the strategic development report. Cultivating theengineers who have state-of-the-art creativity and innovation and leadership is a significantproblem that should be concerned over an extended period.This study is based engineering education and leadership theory.The research methodsused in the study are literature analysis and case studies and other methods.The beginning ofthe paper introduced the development of the theory of leadership and engineering leadershiptheory.Then the study has inroduced the development of engineering leadership education inthe United States. Finally, the paper reaserched the engineering leadership education programscarried out by three well-known institutions in the United States--Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology Gordon Plan, Pennsylvania State University’s Engineering LeadershipDevelopment Program, Purdue University’s EPICS program (Community service projects),and summarize the successful experience for a reference to our country.At present, the field of engineering education in China is mainly focused on the practicalability training,and the engineering leadership development for engineering talent is basicallya blank stage.Specialized engineering leadership education programs are also barely carriedout on the practice field. Because our universities have not yet paid full attention to cultivateengineering undergraduate students’ leadership and management capabilities,and only a fewcolleges and universities have cultured the leadership capacity for postgraduate students inengineering leadership education, so the main purpose of this paper is to introduce thesuccessful undergraduate engineering leadership education programs and projects of the United States, to draw on a new development direction for our engineering educationinnovation and reform in the future.