Revisiting the urgency for reform of faculty reward systems to advance professional graduate education for engineering practice and technology leadership

This is the first of three papers prepared for a special panel session of the National Collaborative Task Force on Engineering Graduate Education Reform that addresses the need for reform of faculty reward systems to advance professional education for creative engineering practice and technology leadership. As the introductory paper for the panel session, this paper revisits the broad urgency for reform of professionally oriented faculty reward systems for engineering practice and technology leadership. It then calls for a new look at professionally oriented tenure and promotion criteria existing within other service oriented professions. Finally, a path forward is suggested in order to begin the development of an emerging template for professionally oriented faculty reward systems in engineering and engineering technology that better supports teaching, professional scholarship and creative engagement in engineering practice for the development and innovation of technology.