Transcript Slide 1

ME 489 Practices of Modern Engineering
Lecture 11
March 1, 2011
Cultural dimensions
Luis San Andres
Mast-Childs Tribology Professor
Texas A&M University
http://rotorlab.tamu.edu/me489
1
Lecture 11
Date: March 1, 2011
Today:
… Cultural dimensions
Definition of culture – values and dimensions
Team LeftOvers presents:
Beyond Genetic Engineering
Assignments & reading:
A3 – Due March 8 – Assess COE Strategic Plan
Other: complete ONE MINUTE PAPER
NO CLASS Thursday March 3, 2011
2
Re-schedule Group presentations
22Mar
Group Name
1
The Wrecking Crew
2
A&M Team
3
Classic Style
4
The Better Team
5
Team Alpha
6
Last Pick
7
Gilligan's Blade
8
LeftOvers
29Mar
31Mar
5Apr
12Apr
14Apr
19Apr
21Apr
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
26Apr
28Apr
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
April 26 & 28 - last two classes – Let’s welcome any group
wishing to make an additional presentation
3
Recommended topics
National Academy of Engineering
Pick one of the GRAND CHALLENGES FOR ENGINEERING in the 21st Century
http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/
Make solar energy economical
Provide energy from fusion
Develop carbon sequestration methods
Manage the nitrogen cycle
Provide access to clean water
Restore and improve urban infrastructure
Advance health informatics
Engineer better medicines
Reverse-engineer the brain
Prevent nuclear terror
Secure cyberspace
Enhance virtual reality
Advance personalized learning
Engineer the tools of scientific discovery
4
Recommended topic
National Academy of Engineering
GRAND CHALLENGES FOR ENGINEERING in the 21st Century
•
•
•
•
•
•
Justify Need – Why is this challenge important?
Why is it important for the US and the world?
Note state of the art and current pitfalls and
shortcomings
What is the needed knowledge to achieve goal?
Note practical constraints (technological,
economic, political)
Where are the resources to attain the goal?
How can you (us) get involved to face the
challenge?
When do you foresee the challenge be resolved?
5
Schedule Guests: Practicing Engineers
Date
Feb 17 (R)
Sulzer Turbo: Ash Maruyama & friends
March 8 (T)
March 10 (R)
Pratt & Whitney Engines
March 24 (R)
UT graduate students
March 29 (T)
GE Oil & Gas young engineers
April 7 (R)
Southwest Research Institute old engineers
Crash on Entrepreneurship - Richard H. Lester
Learn from practicing engineers
All confirmed
6
Comments on lecture 9
(prepare yourself), group
presentation & others
7
Lana Wilson recommends
Watch a GREAT Movie: The Pirates of Silicone Valley
The history of Steve Jobs & Steve Wasniak (Apple) and Bill
Gates (Microsoft). It shows how you really have to believe
in and develop your ideas. It will pay off!
See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_Silicon_Valley
Based on Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal
Computer by P. Freiberger and M. Swaine
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
8
Questions
Want to know more about SPORTS ENGINEERING?
Entertainment Eng. and Sports Eng. are fast growing branches of eng.
Every sports item (balls, bats, shoes, skies, etc.) are designed & tested to
satisfy specific needs for performance enhancement (long life, more or
less friction, more or less traction, etc). TRIBOLOGY contributes greatly
to the field of Sports Eng.
Visit ISEA (international Sports Engineering Association) at
http://www.sportsengineering.co.uk/
Univ. of Nevada (UNLV) offers a BS degree in Entertainment
Engineering and Design
http://www.eed.egr.unlv.edu/
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
9
Question
How do some upper level classes and technical
electives lead to job opportunities & specialties?
Taking electives and involvement in
research projects gives you an
edge (a step in the door) to many
specialized jobs. Talk with faculty!
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
10
Prepare yourself
The top 10
1. Poor planning on one’s part does not constitute
automatic emergency from others
2. Know corporate structure + follow chain of command
3. The inquisitive idiot: must ask, but think first
4. Own your project or assignment: anticipate needs
5. Less is more: work smarter, not harder
6. The enemy of good is perfect: learn when to stop
7. Keep a paper trail, write more and write well, It is not
what you know, it is what you can prove
8. Leave work at work
9 Mistakes are inevitable: GIGO
10. Save money early, pace yourself
Comments on lecture delivered by Ash Maruyama
11
Prepare yourself
Great presentation, but I am surprised Ash did say
treat people the way you want to be treated…
Best presentation I’ve heard while at TAMU.
Ask presenter at the time. It is not impolite or
disrespectful.
Earning respect and treating others as one wants to
be treated are tracts practiced daily (they could be
lost in a second as well)
In Ash’s case it is most important since he deals with clients and suppliers, and
technical personnel with all levels of education and backgrounds.
12
Prepare yourself
Pay for yourself?
Employer invests in you to be productive.
In short. Assume it costs your company (low
estimate) $200 k/year to keep you employed [salary
+ benefits + administrative cost ]. You must generate
business for at least $200k/year to break even, i.e.,
to justify your employment (pay for yourself).
You will be rewarded and recognized when making
more (net profit) and bring more (for others).
13
Recommendations for organizing?
Only one – start today!
Perpetual procrastination is the worst enemy
of organization.
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
14
Comments on lecture 10 &
group presentation:
Driverless cars
15
Question – driverless cars
Are the autonomous cars able to sense objects
beyond immediate interferences, i.e., a wrecked
vehicle behind the 18 wheeler in front of you?
How do sensors pick up edges or middle of roads
that are only one lane and do not have lane lines
(country back roads) to keep the car on the proper
side of the road?
I will really miss driving if we go in that direction. I
really enjoy the “thrill” of driving although it may
be “illegal”
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
16
Question – driverless cars
What are other projects that will replace “people”?
(as controllers or drivers?)
For example: pilots maneuvering UAVs (unmaned
aerial vehicles), rescue missions, dirty jobs, etc.
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
17
More comments
Thanks you for this class. It is keeping
me motivated and excited about
engineering!
Good class as always!
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
18
Room for thought
Pending legislation:
Allow concealed guns in buildings at Texas
universities
Will you feel safer or will you fear more?
A forum at
http://dof.tamu.edu/Guns%20on%20Campus.pdf
Debate time
19
Topic
The world we live in:
What makes us unique or different from
others?
Practices of Modern Engineering – Spring 2011
20
Resource
Cultures and Organizations: Software for
the Mind by Geert Hofstede & Gert Jan Hofstede
• Reveals the unexamined rules by which people in
different cultures think, feel, and act in business, family,
schools, and political organizations.
• Explores how national cultures differ in the key areas
of inequality, collectivism versus individualism,
assertiveness versus modesty, tolerance for ambiguity,
and deferment of gratification
Product description found & copied in www.amazon.com
21
Resource
Cultures and Organizations: Software for
the Mind by Geert Hofstede & Gert Jan Hofstede
• Explains culture shock, ethnocentrism,
stereotyping, differences in language and humor,
and other aspects of intercultural dynamics
•Provides powerful insights for business people, civil
servants, physicians, mental health professionals,
law enforcement professionals, and others
•Explains how organizational cultures differ from
national cultures, and how they can--sometimes--be
managed
Product description found & copied in www.amazon.com
22
Culture
Culture [cultivate]: Dictionary:
ALL THE KNOWLEDGE AND VALUES SHARED BY A SOCIETY
Culture is the collective programming(*) of the mind
that distinguishes the members of one group of
people from others.
Culture is learned (not innate), it derives from the
social environment.
(*) mental patterns of thinking, feeling and acting
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
23
Culture
Culture must be distinguished from human
nature and from individual personality
Inherited and learned
Specific to individual
Personality
Specific to group
Culture
Universal
Learned
Human nature
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
Inherited
24
Culture
The onion manifestation of Culture at different
levels of depth
Symbols
Heroes
Values
Rituals
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
25
Culture
Values (tendencies to prefer certain states)
Evil vs. good,
Dirty vs. Clean,
Dangerous vs. safe,
Forbidden vs. permitted,
Decent vs. indecent
Moral vs. immoral
Ugly vs. beautiful
Unnatural vs. natural
Abnormal vs. normal
Paradoxical vs. logical
Irrational vs. rational
Symbols
Heroes
es
tic
Rituals
ac
Pr
Values
Values are acquired early
in our lives
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
26
Dimensions of National Cultures
Basic problems worldwide
1. Relation to authority
2. Conception of self –
relation of individual and society, and
the individual concept of masculinity and femininity
3. Ways to deal with conflict, including the
control of aggression and
expression of feelings
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
27
Dimensions of National Cultures
1980-2000s research & statistical analysis on
the values of people for countries
1. Social inequality, including relationship with authority
2. Relationship between individual and group
3. Concepts of masculinity and femininity the
implications of having been born as a boy or a girl
4. Ways to dealing with uncertainty & conflict
(related to the control of aggression and
expression of emotions)
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
28
Dimensions of National Cultures
Ideas were first based on a large research project
into national culture differences across
subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (IBM) in
64 countries.
Later studies covered students in 23 countries,
elites in 19 countries, commercial airline pilots in
23 countries, up-market consumers in 15 countries,
and civil service managers in 14 countries.
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
29
Dimensions of National Cultures
1.Power Distance (More Equal than Others)
2.Individualism (I, We and They)
3.Masculinity (He, She & (S)he)
4.Uncertainty Avoidance (What is Different is
Dangerous)
5.Long-Term Orientation (Yesterday, Now, or
Later)
See
http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/
For a map of the World to evaluate how similar or different countries or
regions are
Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind
By Geert Hofstede and Gert Jan Hofstede
30
Questions?
Next lecture
03/08 –
“Culture and organizations”
Power Distance Index, Individualism vs
Collectivism
31
Practices of
Modern
Engineering
© Luis San Andres
Texas A&M University
2011
http://rotorlab.tamu.edu/me489
32