by Brandon Marshall Miller

U.Va. engineering students Darnell Eaton and Jacosta Silver plan to enter business school after earning their undergraduate degrees. But soon, Eaton, a third-year electrical engineering student, and Silvers, a second-year computer science major, and their fellow engineering undergraduates at U.Va., will have a new option.

The School of Engineering and Applied Science recently approved a minor in Engineering Business. Being offered for the first time this spring, the minor will provide an introduction to business basics, said Deborah Johnson, the Anne Shirley Carter Olsson Professor of Applied Ethics, who helped design the minor with other members of the Engineering School’s Technology, Management and Policy Committee.

“This program will open students’ eyes to the world of business in which they are likely to practice as engineers and will add a credential that should enhance their job choices and career potential,” Johnson said.

The 18-credit minor will include three required courses — Making Business Work, Principles of Economics: Microeconomics, and Technology & Product Development Life Cycle — and three electives to be chosen from a current list of 15 courses, including economics, accounting, commercial law, finance, marketing, strategic maagement, business ethics and entrepreneurship.

Two gifts from alumni enabled the school to carve the new minor out of an older program, the Technology Management and Policy minor, which will be reshaped into a complementary Science and Technology Policy minor that will have a central emphasis on government policy, Johnson said. A $50,000 gift from William Utt (Engineering ’79, ’80; and Darden ’84) will provide short-term support for the Engineering Business minor, and a $1 million endowment from Clark Construction Group Inc., via Daniel Montgomery (Engineering ’73 and Darden ’77), will help sustain the program over the longer term.

It’s not uncommon for engineering graduates to shift their focus from engineering to business as their careers progress.

“There have always been a respectable number of engineering graduates in business-oriented positions,” students in MAE 400said George Cahen, associate vice president of the Virginia Engineering Foundation.

Students in MAE 400
But given the tough job climate, the Engineering School saw an opportunity to offer graduates additional skills that could make them more competitive job candidates at the outset, said Clarence Livesay, director of the school's Career Services Department.

The Engineering Business minor is just the latest sign of growing interest among engineering students in understanding the business side of the workplace — and among businesses in profiting from the multifaceted skill sets of engineering students, school officials said.

“In the last 10 years, we've seen growth in the number of non-traditional engineering recruiters — brokerage firms, financial institutions, and other such groups,” Livesay said.

The top five recruiters of U.Va.’s engineering students over the past decade have included four companies with business-concentrated agendas — Accenture/Andersen Consulting, American Management Systems, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Capital One Bank, Livesay said.

“Engineers bring excellent problem-solving skills, developed communication skills and an advanced knowledge of technology to businesses,” he said.

Six years ago, as this trend was becoming apparent at schools such as Washington University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.Va.’s Engineering School established the Technology Management and Policy minor in consultation with the McIntire School of Commerce and the Department of Politics, Engineering’s first foray into providing its students with an understanding of business fundamentals. Since then, the national trend has grown stronger and businesses have grown more interested in helping engineering schools develop business curricula.

Similar programs include Carnegie-Mellon University’s Integrated Engineering and Business Program, established in the fall of 2002, in which students work toward a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master's degree in business administration; and Lehigh University’s Integrated Business and Engineering Honors Program, recently launched as an undergraduate course of study.

Two U.Va. students declared the Technology Management Policy minor this year, while 11 did so last year and 24 have completed the requirements for the minor over the past six years. While it’s too soon to gauge the popularity of the Engineering Business minor, one student signed up for it within days of its approval, Johnson said.

Eaton believes that his engineering training is the perfect preparation for a career in business. “It shows I have the problem-solving skills and critical thinking ability that it takes,” he said.

Silver hopes to combine her training in computer engineering and business to strengthen her career prospects. “Ultimately, I would like to use my computer expertise to manage a business that employs other computer engineers,” she said.

Now, with the Engineering Business minor, undergraduate engineering students will have a new question to contemplate: Wait until graduate school to study business, or start in the spring?