Women Engineering Deans: Nada Marie Anid, Ph.D

2. Do you believe modern engineers are more important to technological innovation or infrastructure? Why?

When analyzing innovation clusters in the U.S., what we see is that “where engineers concentrate, we can expect the greatest capacity for innovation”. This is why the New York Metropolitan Area is seeing an unprecedented boost in technology start-ups and Silicon Alley is catching up with Silicon Valley.

One would argue that technological innovation is becoming an intricate component to our infrastructure leading to novel “cyber-physical systems and networks”, the “internet of things”, smart cars, smart glasses, smart phones, drones, robots –

At New York Institute of Technology, an NCIIA pilot program helps engineering students follow an entrepreneurship path to equip them for success in bringing their ideas to market and a transformative Entrepreneurship and Technology Innovation Center (ETIC) is being created with U.S. Department of Commerce and NY Empire State Development funds to create a vibrant innovation hub.

3. How has the job market changed through the Great Recession for the engineering sector?

– From monster.com, a survey of engineers and engineering companies in 2013: http://career-advice.monster.com/job-search/company-industry-research/how-is-engineering-job-market/article.aspx

– “Over one-half (57%) state that the job market is saturated with qualified talent.

– Only 37% agree that employers are willing to provide the time and training to support a job.

– Only 27% agree that employers are willing to provide higher compensation than 12 months ago.

– Only 11% are extremely confident they could find a new job in the next year.

– However, the employer perspective is quite different. According to a recent Monster survey of employers recruiting for engineering talent, a majority (73%) reported they were likely to hire this year, yet less than one-half (39%) were confident in staffing all their engineering job opportunities due to a lack of qualified candidates, highly specialized job requirements and non-competitive salaries.”

– NACE lists starting salaries for Computer Science and Engineering majors at $60,038, and $60,639, respectively

http://naceweb.org/uploadedFiles/Content/static-assets/downloads/executive-summary/2014-january-salary-survey-executive-summary.pdf

– The job outlook brochure released by NACE for the class of 2014 states that companies who hire recent grads are likely to increase hiring 7.8% and that grads with bachelor’s degrees in engineering, computer/information science, and communications are the most in demand.

4. Which engineering disciplines are most in demand in the market?

– The most engineering majors that are most in demand are: Mechanical, Electrical, Computer, and Chemical, according to the NACE report.

– At NYIT, aside from Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering are seeing a boost. “Designing Digital Degrees” Huff Post article by NYIT President Edward Guiliano shows NYIT’s strong focus on cybersecurity education:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-guiliano-phd/designing-degrees-for-digital_b_4302602.html

NYIT is also an NSF REU site for Undergraduate Research on Mobile Security:

http://www.nyit.edu/engineering/announcements/application_deadline_for_reu_at_nyit_is_approaching