Engineering Management

Chairman: Peter J. McKenny
Professors: K. Ansari, A. Khattak, P. McKenny
Associate Professors: J. Marciniak, S. Schennum
Assistant Professors: S. Bowers
Senior Lecturer: J. Dacquisto

The Engineering Management Program was developed to address a growing need for individuals that possess both engineering and management skills. Courses taken in the Engineering Management Program are intended to provide students with a broad understanding of the practice and concepts of engineering, and make them adaptive leaders that are ready to address challenges caused by rapid changes in technology. The program provides graduates an opportunity to select from a wide range of career paths, and sufficient preparation for entry into the M.B.A. Program - which can be completed in an additional calendar year. (See “B.S. in Engineering and M.B.A.”  for information.)

The program tends to attract students whose talents and interests are broader than conventional engineering design and analysis, and even those that have yet to decide on a particular field of engineering specialization. The Engineering Management Program may be especially well suited to the typical engineering student attracted to Gonzaga University since it makes use of engineering and leadership skills they develop at GU, with their interest in helping others and making a valuable contribution to society. Combining a strong engineering background with a select set of courses from the School of Business Administration, students develop a skill-set that is highly sought after by employers today.

Engineering managers combine management expertise with their engineering background to lead teams in various technical fields. Areas of employment typically include project management and supervision, product development, production planning, engineering design and manufacturing, materials management, production processes, product quality and reliability, inventory management, system analysis, industrial plant management, technical sales and marketing, and a wide spectrum of other positions in practically any industry.

Engineers typically work in teams, create innovative products and jobs, and add value to the products we use in everyday life. Many engineers rise to the highest levels in business organizations to become global leaders and innovators, start companies like Boeing, Google, Hewlett Packard, Intel, and Yahoo, or use their engineering training as a springboard to other fields. They succeed in fields as diverse as investment banking, law, and medicine, and also play a leading role in addressing many world problems’ including global warming, clean water shortage, power shortages, poverty, nuclear proliferation, and new medical devices and equipment.

In the Engineering Management program students are provided with a foundation in the critical skills required to be successful in their chosen career. The program contains a set of common engineering core courses that provide a solid basis in engineering principles, augmented by relevant courses on the process of management as it applies to technically-based projects. Students also develop a technical concentration by taking a set of courses from one of five tracks - Civil, Computer, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering, or Computer Science. Each technical track draws from a wide selection of interests within a particular engineering discipline. Technical proficiency is increased and management skills strengthened by combining qualitative approaches and quantitative techniques in a balanced curriculum. This combination of management and engineering skills is highly sought after by industry today.

Gonzaga’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is in a unique position to offer this new Engineering Management program. Students receive a wealth of engineering knowledge in small class sizes with caring, involved faculty that possess an array of industrial experience. Graduates from the program will be competent and conversant in the basic scientific and engineering principles, and will be able to formulate concepts, develop system designs, and apply engineering problem solving skills to their solutions. They will be able to see the “big picture” and interact with other engineers to develop practical, technologically achievable solutions within the constraints of time, cost, and resources. They will also be able to mediate between design team members, particularly in their ability to interpret requirements, explain designs and describe features for the non-technical members of the team.

The Engineering Management program is not intended to provide an opportunity for students majoring in other engineering programs to earn a second engineering degree. Therefore, this degree will not be awarded in conjunction with any other engineering degree.

The Engineering Management Department , in conjunction with its various constituencies, has clearly defined program objectives. These engineering program objectives are listed in the School of Engineering and Applied Science section of this catalog, and by the Gonzaga University Mission Statement that may be found at the beginning of the catalogue.