A Whole New Engineer

A Revolution Is Coming. It Isn’t What You Think.


This book tells the improbable stories of Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a small startup in Needham, Massachusetts, with aspirations to be a beacon to engineering education everywhere, and the iFoundry incubator at the University of Illinois, an unfunded pilot program with aspirations to change engineering at a large public university that wasn’t particularly interested in changing. That either one survived is story enough, but what they found out together changes the course of education transformation forever:


• How joy, trust, openness, and connec- tion are the keys to unleashing young, courageous engineers.

• How engineers educated in narrow technical terms with a fixed mindset need an education that actively engages six minds—analytical, design, people, linguistic, body, and mindful— using a growth mindset.

• How emotion and culture are the crucial elements of change, not content, curriculum, and pedagogy.

• How four technologies of trust are well established and widely available to promote more rapid academic change.

• How all stakeholders can join together in a movement of open innovation to accelerate collaborative disruption of the status quo.


Read this book and get a glimpse inside the coming revolution in engineering. Feel the engaging stories in this book and understand the depth of change that is coming. Use this book to help select, shape, demand, and create educational experiences aligned with the creative imperative of the twenty-first century.