Workforce Development Survey Results: Industry, Government Laboratories, Academia, and Recent Graduates

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https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-020-04353-8 Ó 2020 The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society

Workforce Development Survey Results: Industry, Government Laboratories, Academia, and Recent Graduates Simona E. Hunyadi Murph, Ashish Singh, and Kester Clarke The TMS Education Committee designated a subcommittee on Workforce Development to survey professionals in industry (I), government laboratories (G), academia (A), and recent graduates (RG) to gain insights into the alignment of materials science curricula with workforce needs. The survey project began with a charter to explore any disconnects that might exist between university materials curriculum and workforce knowledge, skills, and ability needs for materials Simona E. Hunyadi Murph

science and engineering (MSE)-related careers, and also highlight critical areas of excellence that should be preserved. Focused surveys for each category were developed and more than 150 responses were received, including 83 responses from industry/government, 40 responses from recent graduates, and 29 responses from academia. The primary survey questions are summarized below, with choices for answers given in Table I. • Which of the following knowledge or

Table I. Specific skills listed in the survey, of which the top five were selected Mathematical Foundations

Materials Physics

Materials Processing

Statistical Process Control and Design of Experiments Effective Communication

Failure Analysis

Mechanical Behavior of Solids Modeling and Simulation Tools

Structure of Materials

Materials Design Fundamentals

Computational Approaches

Data Science

Working Across Interdisciplinary Teams

Other (summary of responses received):

Academia (A) – mechanical engineering

Ashish Singh

Industry (I) and Government Laboratories (G) – proposal writing, chemistry, critical thinking, awareness of fields (e.g., nuclear), programming, basic computer skills, industrial work habits, deadlines, accuracy, communication (phone vs. e-mail vs. text) Recent Graduates (RG) – Six Sigma principles, project engineering, industry best practices Table I. The variety of skills listed for survey participants to choose from, as well as a summary of additional responses received from each group.

“Workforce Development Survey Results: Industry, Government Laboratories, Academia, and Recent Graduates” was developed as a special project of the TMS Education Committee to identify potential gaps between university curricula and workforce skills and needs, as related to materials science and engineering. For additional information, contact Kaitlin Calva, JOM Magazine Managing Editor, at [email protected].

Kester Clarke

Murph, Singh, and Clarke

skills have not been acquired by new hires? • Which of the following knowledge or skills have been acquired by new hires? The results of the category surveys are summarized in the following sections, highlighting noteworthy categories and comments.

Results The results of the surveys are presented in three parts, starting with industry and government, followed by SHUVSHFWLYHVIU