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PROFESSOR JOEL
SCHINDALL: This course

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represents one of
four courses that

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are given in the Gordon
Leadership Program.

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We have a course on engineering
innovation and design,

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a course on engineering
leadership, a course on people

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and organizations, which talks
about how to work effectively

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within a company, and of
course on project engineering,

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which teaches them how to use
the same tools and skills they

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learned when they assemble
electronic systems to assemble

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the management system
that it takes in order

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to run a complicated program.

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When we got funding for
the Gordon MIT Engineering

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Leadership Program,
we got together

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with a number of
industry leaders,

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actually quite a large
number of industry leaders,

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to look at what was
engineering leadership

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and what were they looking for
in the successful engineers

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within their companies.

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About 3/4 of the topics
had to do with leadership--

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decision-making, advocacy,
cross-cultural communication--

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but about a quarter
of the topics

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that they really
were looking for had

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to do with good
engineering designers.

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And they were talking
not just about being

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skilled in the
craft, but actually

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looking at the world in a
way where they realized what

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was wanted and
needed, what was it

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the people who are using
this product might require,

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and they actually came up with
elegant, innovative designs.

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They observed that
a small portion

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of the engineers that they hired
seemed to have that ability,

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and a much larger
portion of them

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would do competent
design work, but just

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didn't pick up on the kinds
of breakthrough designs

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that the smaller group could do.

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Rather than teach the
students the design skills

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of a particular
engineering discipline,

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we work to teach the students
to think like designers--

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to be able to get
outside the problem

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itself and look at what is
the purpose of this project

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or product or process?

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What function does it serve?

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What is the need that is
required out in the world?

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And how can I innovatively
and creatively use the tools

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that I have learned
in order to design,

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invent, produce, and
implement something

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that will satisfy this need?

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So we put together
a course which

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is a combination of
10 design principles,

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Socratic inquiry, and the
students themselves being

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engaged in design
projects, and supported

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by some student
teaching assistants,

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which engages and
provokes the students

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to develop these
kinds of abilities

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and causes them to
leave the course not so

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much with a specific
body of knowledge--

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we don't actually care
whether they continue

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doing that specific
design project--

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but what we want them to do--
and they do, in fact, they

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can't avoid it-- is to apply
this way of thinking to the way

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that they go about
solving future problems.

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I actually had a
career in industry

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after graduating
from MIT, 35 years

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in aerospace and
telecommunications,

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but I couldn't resist
the opportunity

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to come back and
give back by helping

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MIT's young students develop the
kind of attitude and behavior

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that is necessary to be
effective as an engineer today.

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PROFESSOR BLADE KOTELLY: We're
successful if a student exits

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the course having
completely changed

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the way they think
about the world.

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And I know that sounds
like a strange thing.

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And what we mean, is
that hopefully they

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see everything differently.

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When they're walking
down the street

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and they pass a door
handle, they think,

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why is the door handle
designed that way?

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Does it communicate effectively
to me to know how to use it?

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What about other people?

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Would they understand
how to use it?

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What's the material made
of, which material's

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involved in that door handle?

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How has it been used?

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Is it smudged?

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Is it clear?

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Is it clear against
the background?

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Hopefully, they see
everything differently

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in the vast interconnectedness
of everything in the world.

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And the fact that
everything we do

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is ultimately in
service to people.

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So if you're making a
part for space station,

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it might have to be replaced
by someone or diagnosed,

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so that is in service to people.

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People to operate
a bigger system

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that can tell us more
about how we live.

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So if they walk out of the
class being able to do that,

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we're successful.

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PROFESSOR JOEL
SCHINDALL: One way

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in which I like to
challenge the students

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at the end of the course
is to point out to them

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that the course
is not ending now.

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It's beginning now.

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We actually gave them
the instruction set

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and the way of thinking.

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Their job now is to
go out into the world

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and to use that
thinking in order

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to be more effective designers.

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And here's a gotcha.

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Once your eyes are open to that,
as has happened in this class,

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you can't stop doing it.

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So a year from now, or two
years from now, or five years

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from now, I expect
to hear back from you

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that you faced or
came up with some kind

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of a creative solution to
a longstanding problem.

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And I'm going to take great
satisfaction in the fact

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that you came up
with that solution,

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but some of the tools and the
ways of looking at the world

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that we discussed
in this class will

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have been the enabling or
the facilitating factor

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in your effectiveness
of doing that.