Study on the careers of MIT Mechanical Engineering undergraduate alumni

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the skills used in the professional field in order to tailor the MIT undergraduate curriculum to address those needs. Data was collected through a survey sent to the graduating classes of 1992 through 1996, 2003 through 2007, and 2009 through 2013 in order to get a range of responses. The survey focused on topics pertaining to technical knowledge, engineering skills, work environment skills, and professional attributes. The questions focused on frequency of use, expected proficiency, and source of knowledge of these topics. Results of the data were categorized by frequency, proficiency, and source, as well as by occupation and graduating year. Responses show a lower frequency of use for the technical reasoning knowledge and a high frequency of use for communication-based skills. However, this is because technical knowledge is considered valuable to a specialized group of people, whereas the work environment skills are more career-independent. One method of addressing this observation is to balance out the number of lecture-based classes and project-based classes. Additional interpretations of the data, along with their implications on the curriculum, are discussed in more detail.