Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures Program
Since the 1980s, the Engineering Futures (EF) program has provided professional skills training to help Tau Beta Pi members develop non-technical skills that are essential for success in engineering careers. The initial program grew from chapter officer training workshops developed and delivered by member volunteers, and expanded to serve college students when curriculum was donated by a professional skills training company. Use of these materials was restricted to sessions hosted by collegiate chapters for students, however. In order to expand access and develop updated curricula materials, Tau Beta Pi joined the national CyberAmbassadors collaboration in 2017. With funding from the National Science Foundation, new curriculum materials were developed, tested with thousands of participants, and refined for use across STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) disciplines. After several years of research, the new EF curriculum was offered in 2020-21 as part of EF Online (a series of professional skills training webinars hosted by TBP and open to the public).
EF in Spring 2022
In 2021-22, we will continue to offer the new materials as part of EF Online while recruiting and training volunteer facilitators to deliver the new curriculum in person. Due to the ongoing pandemic and the need to train facilitators, we are not yet able to offer sessions by request. We will continue to offer EF Online as a fixed calendar of events during 2021-22, and let chapters know by email when we are able to resume taking session requests.
Calendar for EF Online in Spring 2022:
Click here to view and register for the Engineering Futures Online Calendar of Events 2022 (January-March):
| Day and Date | Time | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, January 18 | 8:00pm EDT | Financial Basics and More: How to Build Financial Security |
| Tuesday, January 20 | TBD EDT | TBP Scholarships and Fellowships |
| Wednesday, February 2 | 7:00pm EDT | Teaming Up: Effective Groups and Meetings |
| Tuesday, February 8 | 8:00pm EDT | Career Path: What is my Right Career Path? |
| Thursday, February 17 | 7:00pm EDT | The Advantages of Learning a Second Language for Engineers |
| Tuesday, March 8 | 8:00pm EDT | Learn About an Asset with Benefits for Life |
| Tuesday, April 12 | 8:00pm EDT | Investing Basics |
Volunteers Needed!
EF is run entirely by volunteers, and we need your help! You can sign up to help support just one EF Online session (this only takes 75 minutes!), make a longer term commitment as a program facilitator or organizer, or share the time and skills you have available to help with tasks like marketing or data analysis on your own schedule. If you'd like more information about volunteer opportunities, please fill out this brief form.
Hosts and Moderators for EF Online —
is the most immediate need; if we do not find enough people to help in these roles, we may have to cancel some of the sessions scheduled for this fall. Brief descriptions of these roles are included below, with more detailed descriptions available here.
Hosts —
are responsible for helping to start and end the session successfully.
Time Commitment: 15 minutes of email in advance, 75 minutes during the session.
Skills Needed: familiar with Zoom, willing to speak during the session (with video on if possible).
Moderators —
are responsible for helping to monitor chat and time during the session.
Time Commitment: 15 minutes of email in advance, 75 minutes during the session.
Skills Needed: familiar with Zoom chat, access to a timer/clock.
For additional information, select a topic below:
The Tau Beta Pi Engineering Futures (EF) program uses curricula developed through publicly funded research sponsored by the National Science Foundation (CyberAmbassadors, NSF Award #1730137). Nine individual sessions are available across three focus areas:
Communications
- First Contact: Communicating with Purpose
- Let's Talk: Communicating about Problems
- It's Complicated: Communicating about Complexity
- Teaming Up: Effective Groups and Meetings
- Speaking Up: Effective Presentation Skills
- Leveling Up: Problem Solving and Decision Making
- Leading the Team: Understanding Style and Personality
- Leading the Change: Equity and Inclusion
- Leading with Principles: Ethics
Teamwork
Leadership
Each of these sessions contains 2-3 hours of training, although the curricula can be customized based on audience, learning goals, and delivery format. Each session can be completed independently, although there is a logical progression of topics from Communications through Teamwork and Leadership so participants may prefer to complete the sessions in order when possible
(Back to Top)
Engineering Futures facilitators are Tau Beta Pi members who volunteer to help organize and lead sessions on college campuses, for alumni chapters, and within their companies and/or communities. During 2021-22, we are actively recruiting and training facilitators to present the new curriculum materials, with the goal of having enough facilitators available to resume sessions by request in Fall 2022.
Do you know a TBP member who would be a great EF facilitator? In the longer term, we hope to train alumni volunteers living near every collegiate and alumni chapter as facilitators for the EF program. This will allow chapters to easily schedule sessions by coordinating with local or regional facilitators, and provide more advanced professional skills training for those members volunteering as facilitators. Towards this goal, chapters are encouraged to invite local alumni with strong interpersonal skills to consider applying for facilitator training. To learn more about facilitator training and other volunteer opportunities, please fill out this brief form.
(Back to Top)