- Industry seeks people with the ability to
- Lead, contribute to and/or manage complex R&D or product development initiatives
- Coordinate the efforts of a broad range of individuals with diverse sets of scientific/engineering skills
- Manage in a team environment
- Produce a product on time and on budget
- Demonstrated technical competence
- The scientist or engineer must meet some well defined company technological need
- Electrical engineering, optical system design, etc.
- Excellent writing skills; > 25% of time is spent writing
- Demonstrated presentation skills (oral and written)
- Most "Hi-Tech" / "Growth" company espouse "participative" management principles
- Demonstrated expertise statistics and in the methods of "Designed Experiments"
- Today's competitive environment requires reduced R&D and product development cycles; time to market is critical
- Traditional methods of random walk approaches to experimental science are out
- "Design of Experiments" methods should be taught in all experimental disciplines
- Demonstrated interdisciplinary team experience
- Undergraduate opportunities include "Co-op" programs or Senior Team Projects
- Total Quality Management (TQM) skills are a must
- Problem solving methodologies including 7-Step methodology, Pareto charts and Fish-Bone diagrams
- Concept Engineering approach to new product development
- Demonstrated business acumen
- The student should have a background in the fundamentals of finance and accounting
- Ability to read and understand a company's financial statements/balance sheet
- The student must be able to accept change; he/she must be willing to leave their specialized thesis work and embark on new scientific and engineering adventures.
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