Caruth Hall is part of the collection of buildings that house the Lyle School of Engineering. (Spencer J Eggers/The Daily Campus)
Every generation is expected to live up to various expectations. The world views the generation of college students as young, innovative and daring. People are looking forward to a better tomorrow and they are counting on students to lead the way.
Elizabeth L. Dougherty, Chris Sadler and Mitch Hart spoke to a group of engineer students about what current professionals want the current generation to grow to be like.
Dougherty, acting deputy director in the Office of Patent Legal Administration at the United States Patent and Trade Office, believe students are the generation of freethinkers.
“We certainly see students as the next generation of innovators. You are the future, you will help to take the economy to the next level and make it successful,” Dougherty said as she recently spoke student of the Lyle School of Engineering.
The world is counting on college students to go where no human has gone before, ask questions that have never been answered and find solutions to some of the worlds’ biggest problems.
Rear Admiral Chris Sadler of the United States Navy Admiral believes we are the generation of the technologically savvy.
“Today’s world is very technologically advanced. One of the edges we need to maintain over potential adversaries is our technical edge,” Sadler said.
Growing up in a world filled with technology, college students are consumed by the various and ever-changing technological ways of the world.
They are known to be skilled in technology and people expect them to become more skilled with time. The world wants their technological skills, but most importantly, it needs their technological skills.
By providing the Navy with machinery that works, engineers have found their way to give back and show their appreciation.
Now it is time to continue that dedication to the nation’s armed forces by providing them with the technology they need to stay ahead of the game.
Hart, from SMU’s Hart Center for Engineering Leadership (HCEL), believes we are the generation of new leadership.
“We need to develop leaders, not just engineers. We need to not just develop great things, but lead great things,” Hart said.
With the help of HCEL, SMU is doing just that. If it’s leaders they want, then it is leaders they will get. When the time comes for students to step up to the plate, they will possess the qualities needed to be great leaders.
SMU is helping to shape every student, not just engineers, into exactly what the world expects them to be.
They are educating students in technology, challenging them to think freely and think broadly and encouraging them to lead when and wherever we’re needed.
The Lyle School of Engineering pointed students down the path that leaders like Elizabeth L. Dougherty, Admiral Chris Sadler and Mitch Hart have helped to lay out and hope they follow that path to the end.
