The document summarizes a business visit report from Honeywell, a global aerospace company. It describes the different types of engineers used at Honeywell, including systems, software, and hardware engineers. It also discusses the skills and tools required for each engineering role. The document compares the skills taught in school to those needed for engineering careers and identifies gaps between the curriculum and industry needs.

1. Business Visit Report

2. Business chosen Honeywell Honeywell is a high tech, global company Although Honeywell as a company has many facets, the area I had contact with was the largest and was the aerospace division. This division designs and produces products for the aerospace industry with a focus on guidance and navigation. As a former engineer this is was an area of interest to me, and many of my students want to go into engineering of some form.

3. Technology Skills currently being used I focused in on engineering since many of my students are interested in engineering. The following slides show the different types of engineers they use there and what the skill requirements are. The first slide shows tools that all share

4. Systems Engineer Microsoft Office Doors (requirements traceability software) Clearcase & Clearquest (software configuration management & software problem tracking) Excellent written & verbal communication Good interpersonal skills to communicate with customers Good hardware & software knowledge Microsoft Windows Messenger Ability to interface with other disciplines to discuss hardware/software/systems tradeoffs

5. Systems Engineer Obtaining customer requirements, ensuring that those requirements are documented and flow down to other disciplines. Define the system archetecture to meet those requirements and define system algorithms. May come from any engineering discipline Specific tools used Matlab Software programs that have been developed by software engineers

6. Software Engineer Create the software to meet the requirements that are provided by the systems engineers Majority are computer science, computer engineering, or electrical engineering, but they also come from all over Specific tools used Software development tools such as Visual Studio RTOS software such as VxWorks from Windriver & Greenhills Beyond Compare (allows you to compare files for differences) Knowledge of several computer languages namely C++ & C

7. Hardware engineer Responsible for electrical design & test, design & programming firmware into the hardware 99% are electrical engineers Specific Tools Used: Circuit design Simulation tools Specific skills needed Know both analog and digital design

8. What future skills do you see Honeywell using? The same tools, but newer versions Example: Microsoft office Products are at a level that no entry level person knows what is going on so there is a lot of on the job training that occurs. They will start off at a low level. Due to the nature of the business, data access is limited. Data transmission is done doing secure email, restricted websites, and heavily firewalled intranets Web 2.0 tools are not used and are not likely to be adopted for project related activities. They may be used occasionally for corporate tasks such as entering yearly goals Note corporate IT departments have discouraged this by becoming more restrictive on what’s allowed

9. How does this relate to our student survey? Our students top 3 tools they saw themselves using were: computer, phone & iPod. Looking further down the list they saw themselves using things such as video games, tv’s, etc. Based on the student responses it appears that 1 of 2 conclusions may be made: We are not meeting the needs of the students who are going into this field The students are not thinking about tools they will use in their work life and are instead thinking of tools they will use in general.

10. How well does my curriculum match? Positives I teach classes in Microsoft office, hardware, programming, etc. so from that standpoint the I require students to do several presentations Negatives We do not have programming classes in C++ or C, nor do we teach many of the industry standard tools The industry hasn’t adapted many of the web 2.0 tools yet.

11. Ideas for technology integration Ideally I think WHS should combine the best of both worlds. We should try to meet the business requirements (strong written, oral communication, classes that will give students the skills they need, etc.), while also exposing the students to new tools (i.e. voicethread, blogs, webquests).