Writing Assignment #1 - F23 - IE 20000

IE 20000 - Industrial Engineering Seminar Fall 2023 Writing Assignment #1 Due Date: September 21 st by 11:59 PM EST For this writing assignment, the following learning objectives and areas will be covered: Learning Objectives: 1. Have a good understanding of the Purdue IE program; 3. Have a good understanding of basic engineering ethics. Areas of Reflection: 1. Knowledge of the School of IE (e.g., program requirements, history, etc.); 3. Personal and professional development Assignment requirements: 1. Should be submitted in Brightspace as a single document with your name at the top. The organization of the document is up to the student, but the prompts chosen must be clearly identified. 2. There will be a total of five (5) writing prompts that connect to the areas and learning objectives listed above. At least one prompt must be selected from each area of reflection. a. The first prompt for each writing assignment is reflecting on the corresponding required Mentor Discussion (e.g., the first prompt for Writing Assignment #1 will reflect on Mentor Discussion #1). b. The remaining four (4) prompts can be chosen from the selection of prompts listed below. 3. The document must include a bibliography of resources used in reflecting on the prompts. You are expected to follow an accepted standard for formatting the citations (APA, IEEE, etc.) For information on citation format please visit the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html 4. You may propose your own reading resources or prompt(s) to replace one or more of the four (4) selective prompts, but they must be approved by the instructional staff at least two (2) days before the writing assignment deadline. *Note: prompts are in no particular order. Mandatory Mentor Discussion Reflection: 1. What did you and your mentor group discuss? 2. How did your perspective and/or opinions differ from others in your group? 3. What did you learn and how might you implement this new knowledge in the future?

IE 20000 - Industrial Engineering Seminar Fall 2023 Select 4 prompts from the following two areas, with at least one prompt from each area. Prompts for Area 1: Knowledge of the School of IE 1. What is IISE ? How does the student chapter serve the Purdue IE community? 2. Describe some of the history, philosophy, and vision of School of IE at Purdue. 3. What are some of the global opportunities for IEs at Purdue? 4. Pick two IE faculty whose research interests you. a. In what area do they perform research? This question could be answered by considering how they state their own research interests, or in the context of the categories outlined in the ReThink Initiative webpage 1 (Note: copying and pasting the faculty’s description of their research is not acceptable) b. Describe why their research is of interest to you. 5. Comment on the following: a. Given what you have identified as a prospective career aspiration, what do you expect to need to have as a core skill set before you graduate? b. Based on your perception of the School of IE at Purdue, what are available options and resources that can be leveraged to build this skill set? (Answering this will likely require some searching around the IE website, and other sources you can obtain on your own, such as the IISE website ). c. What do you perceive as barriers to building this skill set? Prompts for Area 3: Personal and professional development 1. Write a letter to your future self. Who am I now? Who do I want to be 5 years out? 10 years out? What do I think I should accomplish by then? 2. Read the article “Why use Undergraduate Research Experiences?” ( https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/studentresearch/Why.html ). From the perspective of career development, how can research be a valuable development tool regardless of whether you pursue a research-focused career? In addition, what skills were you surprised to learn are gained from a quality research experience? 3. Consider the article “The Focused Leader” by Daniel Goleman 2 . Based on the article, answer the following: a. Describe personal attributes that make a person a good leader. b. Given your response to part (a), what is the difference between a leader and a manager. 4. Consider yourself, and answer the following: a. How do you define “success” for yourself? b. What metrics do you use to measure this? c. How might your definition differ from others? d. What sort of factors may contribute to these differences in definitions? 5. Consider yourself, and answer the following: 1 https://engineering.purdue.edu/IE/research 2 Goleman, D. (2013). The Focused Leader. Harvard Business Review , 91(12), December, 50-60.

IE 20000 - Industrial Engineering Seminar Fall 2023 12. Read “Getting Started in the Right Direction: Expert Advice for Preparing for Your Professional Career” by Shapiro et al. 5 . Considering the perspectives of the authors, and of the presenters (at the point of submitting this assignment), argue for why IEs who develop themselves well will allow for opportunities they might not otherwise have thought possible? 13. Read “Your Career Needs Many Mentors, Not Just One” by Dorie Clark 6 . Based on the article and a selected guest speaker, describe why multiple mentors are beneficial. What knowledge about yourself do you need to have to appropriately develop criteria for selecting potential mentors? 14. Read the article “Are you ready? How to prepare for reality: the ins and outs for young professional engineers” by Christina Kach 7 . a. Which specific points from the article have been articulated by the alumni guest speakers throughout the semester? b. Which points have been articulated more often and/or with more emphasis? 15. Read the Code of Ethics from the National Society of Professional Engineers 8 . In addition, read the article “Cambridge Analytica, influencing elections and the INFORMS Ethics Guidelines” by Hunt and Messinger 9 , 10 . Given the content of the code, comment on the following statements: a. “Ethics is not simply personal opinion” b. “There is always more than one alternative” c. “There is always a lack of complete information” In addition, comment on why engineers have such a strict code of ethics to abide by. Use specific examples from the guest speakers where possible. 16. Read the article by “Don’t Dread the Documentation” by Theresa Barker 11 . Describe the importance of “showing your work” as an IE when solving problems in industry. Be sure to incorporate ideas from the article as to how to make this process easier and more impactful. 17. Read the article “Turning Potential Into Success” by Fernandez-Araoz et al. 12 . Identify the most crucial competencies (skills) that are important for success in industry. Use the perspectives shared by the guest speaker, and the content of the article. a. Which of the above skills do you feel are already your strengths? 5 Shapiro, R.G., Andre, A.D., Beith, B.H., Entin, E.B., and B.M. Legin (2003). Getting Started in the Right Direction: Expert Advice for Preparing for Your Professional Career. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 47th Annual Meeting , 1791-1795. 6 Clark, D. (2017). Your Career Needs Many Mentors, Not Just One. Harvard Business Review . Accessed from: https://hbr.org/2017/01/your-career-needs-many-mentors-not-just-one 7 Kach, C. (2015). Are You Ready?: How to prepare for reality. Industrial Engineer , Oct., 31 - 35. 8 Accessible here: https://www.nspe.org/resources/ethics/code-ethics 9 Hunt, D. and Messinger, P.R. (2018). Cambridge Analytica, influencing elections and the INFORMS Ethics Guidelines. ORMS Today , October, 24-29. 10 It may also be useful to consider the INFORMS Ethics Guidelines: https://www.informs.org/About- INFORMS/Governance/INFORMS-Ethics-Guidelines ; and, the Code of Ethics from HFES for additional perspective from disciplinary sub-areas of IE. 11 Barker, T. (2016). Don’t Dread the Documentation. IISE Magazine , Aug., 37-41. 12 Fernandez-Araoz, C., Roscoe, A., and Aramaki, K. (2017). Turning Potential into Success: The Missing Link in Leadership Development. Harvard Business Review, 95(6), Nov./Dec., 86-93 .

IE 20000 - Industrial Engineering Seminar Fall 2023 b. Your weaknesses? c. What can you do to further develop both while at Purdue? 18. Read the article “Lifelong Learning - ordeal or opportunity” by Crandall and Crandall 13 . Considering the perspectives of the guest speaker, and the area in which he now works, comment on the need for lifelong learning to stay current with industry and to facilitate advancement. 19. Consider the article “How Will You Measure Your Life?” by Clayton Christensen 14 . The classical justification regarding the value of undergraduate (and even graduate) education is that graduates will have their ability to “think” transformed. However, life is complicated and it can be hard to remember that what you learn can easily apply holistically to life. What are examples within the article that are relevant to your career and personal development? Why did those examples stand out to you? 20. Law school is a fairly common path for engineers, as they seek post-graduate education and or alternative career paths. However, law school is quite different in structure from undergraduate. Read the following handy webpage, which discusses the differences: https://gineersnow.com/students/engineers-need-know-going-law-school . Given the article and the comments from the guest speaker, comment on what skills you may need to develop in order to be a successful law student (even if this is not an interesting career path 15 , imagine that it is and compare yourself against what you see in the article. 21. Leadership is an oft-emphasized concept that is considered essential for nearly all positions past the entry-level. However, there are as many different theories of leadership as there are leaders. Read the article “ The 6 Fundamental Skills Every Leader Should Practice” by Ashkenas and Manville 16 . What are examples of tasks/skills that are important to develop yourself as a leader (if you attended the talk, the guest speaker mentioned several that may also be relevant)? Why is it important to find ways to practice these tasks/skills? 22. Read the article “Why use Undergraduate Research Experiences?” ( https://serc.carleton.edu/introgeo/studentresearch/Why.html ). Considering the perspective of career development, how can research be a valuable development tool regardless of whether you pursue a research-focused career? In addition, what skills were you surprised to learn are gained from a quality research experience? 13 Crandall, R.E. and Crandall, W.R. (2018). Lifelong Learning - ordeal or opportunity. ISE Magazine , April, 26-31. 14 Christensen, C.M. (2010). How Will You Measure Your Life? Harvard Business Review , 88(7-8), Jul./Aug., 46-51. This article is tailored to MBA students, and other business majors, but applies broadly if you ignore the specific references. In addition, ‘ability to “think”’ is thought of as the development of critical thinking ability. 15 You’re still young, so you never know. One of our alums who went on to law school found law appealing after 5 years as a traditional engineer. His reason: he liked arguing with union workers who resisted his design and improvement efforts more than the work coming up with the design! 16 Askenas, R. and Manville, B. (2018). The 6 Fundamental Skills Every Leader Should Practice. Harvard Business Review, 10/24/18. Accessed from: https://hbr.org/2018/10/the-6-fundamental-skills-every- leader-should-practice .