NASA-TN-I09868 Aerospace Knowq6 ge usion Research-Pr-ojeet --T - [] 1r AIAA Student Membel;s- m = Paper Presented at the 32nd Aer6spa_-_-_ciences Meeting & Exhibit _-_'_-_- iti_f the American Institute of Aeronautic$ ,and Astronautics (AIAA) _-_ _ [I !" " -- Reno Hilton Resort _. -° ,4- _ Reno, Nevada eu co ' January 11, 1994 ¢_ to co u ,-4 o_ c 0 John M. Kenne_ L t%l ..... Indiana University eo Bloomington, Indiana rhomas E.Pinelli : - NASA Langley Research Center LL o ¢:x Hampton, Virginia Z >- =0 " -- Rebecca O. Bar.clay " _-.-. O:3@ I,-<_ ---Rensselaer Po_ochnic Institute _ :. ._--_=_ + _ _._ _:.Troy, New York ¢:[ "_ I,,,- ,, (,,0 t" _= _ _3 ..J LJ _ <_ LU U _O _ UJ _ L2_ L 0 v' r'_ _ u.i Z u'i ,,..4 _ I.,Ll I LU ,..I LIJ _ _ I'- <t _.J !,.J < _ >., _ •_%__ ...... I _- C_,-, 0.. (,,q ¢ N/ A Z LIJUJ LLII,_J*-..t_ National Aerona_cs and Space :...... _..:. _-- __ ....... i Depaffment Of Defense ..... _== ._= ,_-:.=:-_:,,_._ _,__ _;;_ _::-_:-_=_%--__ INDIANA UNIVER_ .... - =_ _f , _ Ir • -- _ I . m •.... _L 2 Technical Communications inAerospace E_lucation: A Study of AIAA Student Members John M Kennedy Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana Thomas EPinelli NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia Rebecca O Barclay Rensselaer Polytechnic University Troy, New York ABSTRACT ence and engineering students. Our goal in this part of the Project isto determine how the This paper describes the preliminary analy- recruitment and training of new personnel inthe sis of asurvey of the American Institute of aerospace professions affects STI use and dis- Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) student semination. members. Inthe paper, we examine (1) the demographic characteristics of the students, (2) The Projecthas four phases. Phase One factors that affected their career decisions, (3) examines the production and use of aerospace their career goals and aspirations, and (4) their information by US aerospace engineers and sci- training intechnical communication and tech- entists. Phase Two examines how information niques for findino and using aerospace scientific intermediaries (principally librarians and techni- and technical information (STI). cal information specialists) inthe aerospace in- dustry evaluate and disseminate technical in- We determine that aerospace engineering. formation. Phase Three looks at aerospace en- students receive training intechnical communi- gineering inacademic settings. This paper cation skills and the use of STI. While those in reports ona Phase Three activity. The surveys the aerospace industry think that more training is reported here are similar to others we conducted needed, we believe the students receive the ap- of students, faculty, and librarians in universities propriate amount of training. We think that the and colleges with aerospace programs. Phase differences between the amount oftraining stu- Four looks at the international dimensions of dents receive and the perception of training aerospace STI. Avariety of surveys of needs is related partially to the characteristics of aerospace engineers inwestern Europe and in the students and partially to the structure of the Asia were conducted inthis Phase. aerospace STI dissemination system. Overall, we conclude that the students' technical com- The data we report inthis paper were col- munication training and knowledge of STI, while lected from the student members of AIAA during limited by external forces, makes itdifficult for spring 1993. We also collected data from eng!- students to achieve their career goals. neering and science students attending the University of Illinois, and Texas A&M University, and technology students at Bowling Green State INTRODUCTION University. Additional data from students in India, Turkey, Holland, Japan, and Russia will This paper provides the first analysis of the be available inthe next few months. We used a data from a series of surveys of aerospace and similar questionnaire in allsurveys, and we plan other engineering and science students that we to analyze the data from the remaining groups conducted as part of the NASA/DoD Aerospace during 1994. Knowledge Diffusion Research Project. The NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion As an earlier Phase Three activity, we con- Research Project attempts to understand the ducted a survey of 640 students who were uses and flows of information atthe indiyidual, enrolled inan undergraduate design capstone organizational, national, and international levels course in39 universities (Pinelli et al, 1991a). inthe aerospace industry. The Project focuses That survey was designed to measure the onthe methods used by aerospace engineers information-seeking behavior and technical and scientists to gather, evaluate, use, and communication skills of undergraduates. Many communicate STt. To understand the process questions were repeated inthe student surveys andthe system more fully, we surveyed conducted last spring, which will allow us to aerospace engineering students and other sci- track the stability and changes over time in thesetwocomponents of undergraduate Table1: SelectedCharacteristicsofAIAAStudent aerospace engineering education. The survey Members.(N=950undergraduateand723 we report inthis paper extends the Project's graduatestudents;percentages) focus to look also at the students' motivation for choosing engineering as acareer and their Characteristics Under.qraduateGraduate goals and plans for their careers. Gender This paper has three parts. In part one, we Males 81.8 87.0 report on demographic characteristics of the Females 18.2 13.0 student members of the AIAA. The second part presents an analysis of the professional and RelativeFamilyIncome personal goals of current aerospace students. Higherthanotherfamilies 29.3 33.7 In the final part, we evaluate the training intech- Sameasotherfamilies 52.1 47.9 nical communication skills the students received. Lessthanotherfamilies 16.2 16.4 We only recently completed tabulating these Don'tknow 2.2 2.1 data, so the results reported inthis paper must be considered preliminary results only. NativeCountry UnitedStates 84.3 73.3 Other 15.7 26.7 METHODS AND DATA NativeLanguage Serf-administered questionnaires were sent English 87.3 76.9 to asample of 4300 student members provided Other 12.7 23.1 by the AIAA. The questionnaires and acover letter on NASA stationery were mailed from NASA Langley in spring 1993. Altogether, 1673 There are substantial differences between AIAA student members returned the question- the graduate and undergraduate samples inthe naires by the termination date of September t, percentages of students whose native language 1993. Due to the summer break, only one mail- isnot English andwho are not native US citi- ing was possible. After reducing the sample zens. Each difference is about ten percentage size for incorrect addresses and other mailing points. Over one-fourth of the graduate students problems, the response rate for the survey was are not native US citizens, and almost one- 42 percent. This rate isvery acceptable for a fourth do not consider English their native lan- student survey with one mailing. guage. Ina later section of this paper, we look at the need for technical communication skills. When asubstantial proportion of students do not Demo,qraphics use English as their native language, teaching these skills becomes more difficult. The AIAA has both undergraduate and graduate student members. Most respondents We do not assume that these numbers to this survey were undergraduates (950 or 57 reflect the demographic composition of all percent). Therewere 723 graduate students aerospace students inthe US, because there who responded." Males outnumbered females are probably differences between the students approximately five to one (Table 1). The pro- who join the AIAA and those who do not. In portion of females is greater among undergrad- particular, non-US native students are probably uates. The gender distribution is very similar less likely to join a US aerospace organization (within two percentage points) to the distribution than are native US citizens. There may be in our earlier survey of senior aerospace stu- smaller or larger gender and family income dif- dents (Pinelli et al, 1991b; Peterson et al, 1991). ferences among allaerospace students, but the degree of difference, ifany, cannot be deter- The students were asked to evaluate their mined. In later analyses, we intend to examine families' incomes relative to those of other fami- the differences inthe responses to questions by lies when they were growing up. Most students characteristics of the students, including gender perceive that their families' incomes were about and citizenship. equal to or greater than those of other families. Only about one-sixth ofthe sample reported that their families' incomes were lower than those of Career Choice others. Graduate students are alittle more likely than are undergraduates to come from higher This section focuses on the career decision- income families. making process and students' career plans. Most students made their decisions about their career choices while inhigh school (Table 2). Almost one-third of the graduate students made their decisions when or after they started col- 2 lege. Only about one-sixth of the undergrad- About 31 percent of undergraduates and 22 uates made their decision after they began percent of graduates chose opportunities for college. This difference may indicate that grad- financial security and the avadability of uate students think pursuing agraduate degree information on aerospace engineering as factors istheir career choice. Decisions about grad- intheir career choices. The impact of family and uate school are often made after students start teachers was minimal. Parents influenced only college, and they may consider this decision a about 13 percent of undergraduates and 17 different choice from choosing aerospace percent of graduates. Teachers influenced engmeenng as a career. career choices at about the same levels. Many AIAA student members are not as Table2: TimingoftheDecisiononAreaofStudy. happy about their career choices now aswhen (N=950undergraduateand723graduate they made them (Table 4). These percentages students;percentages) may reflect some pessimism about the near- term prospects for employment inthe aerospace Under,qraduate Graduat.___e industry.3 Over 30 percent of the graduate stu- dents are less happy with their career choices Elementaryschool 15.9 10.5 now than when they made them. Highschool 64.4 54.8 Whenstartingcollege 9.0 14.8 Table 4 also contains acomparison of data Alterstartingcollege 7.4 15.8 collected atthe same time atthe University of Other 3.3 4.6 Illinois. Approximately 1150 students in alldis- ciplines inthe College of Engineering comprised the Illinois sample. Aerospace engineering stu- We interpret the data inTable 3to indicate dents comprised less than ten percent ofthe that undergraduate and graduate students con- Illinois sample. Overall, the Illinois students are sider the opportunity for acareer with rewarding happier about their career choices than are the activities the most important factor intheir career AIAA students. This difference offers support for choices (84 percent and 77 percent, respec- the premise that aerospace engineering stu- tively). No other factors were cited as often. dents areconcerned about the current employ- ment conditions inthe aerospace industry. Table3: FactorsThatInfluencedCareerChoices.(N=950 We looked at two additional factors that undergraduateand723graduatestudents;per- might explain changes over time inthe students' centages)* happiness about their career choices 4- under- graduate class (freshman, sophomore, etc.) and II CareerChoiceFactor Undergraduate Graduat____e when the students decided on their career (elementary school, high school, etc.). As Parents 12.6 16.5 expected, seniors are much less happy about Otherfamily 8.0 6.4 their career choices than other undergraduates Teachers 14.6 16.4 are. Also, it appears that graduate students who Leadstofinancialsecurity 30.9 21.9 made their career choices after starting college Careerwithrewarding are the least happy respondents. These data activities 84.3 77.3 offer additional support for the premise that hap- Informationoncareer piness with career choices is influenced by job opportunities 28.4 20.3 opportunities. Among undergraduates, those who reported they made their career choices Thestudentsuseda7-pointscale,where7indicated either inelementary school or after they were in thehighestrating,toevaluatetheimportanceofeach college are most pleased with their career factor.ThepercentageslistedinTable3arethe choices. This finding indicates that the engi- studentswhoratedthefactoraseithera6or7. neers who "always thought they would be engi- Table4: Currentrelativehappinesswithcareerchoicescomparedwithrelativehappinessatthetimethechoicesweremade. (AIAA=950undergraduateand723graduatestudents;Illinois=623undergraduateand511graduatestudents; percentages) AIAA Illinois RelativeHappiness Undergraduate Graduate Undergraduate Graduate Morehappynow 26.6 27.6 38.8 37.8 Equallyhappy 47.2 41.7 44.8 42.9 Lesshappynow 24.2 30.6 16.4 19.4 neers"(i.e.,madetheirchoicesinelementary research/academic career orientation that is school)aswellasthosewhomadetheirdeci- more typical of graduate students -- publishing sionsafterstartingcollege (students who might articles and presenting papers. have the best knowledge about careers) are the happiest with their choices. Those factors related to the technical aspects of theircareers (a-c) are most important to the students. Over 80 percent rated the op- Career Aspirations portunity to explore new ideas about technology or systems very important for asuccessful Table 5 presents the distribution of career. Two other technical factors (working on responses to aseries of questions about the complex technical problems and working on factors that the AIAA student members feel are rojects that require learning new technical important for their careers, s The factors inTable nowledge) were rated very important by about 5 are grouped roughly into (1) advanced tech- two-thirds of the students. Over one-haft of the nical applications (a-e), (2) professional repu- students felt that working on projects that utilize tation (f-i), and (3) management (j-o). the latest theoretical results was very important. The students think that developing astrong Table5: ImportanceofCareerGoalsandAspirations. reputation is not as important afactor for a suc- (N=950undergraduateand723graduate cessful career as the types of projects they work students;percentages)' on. Itappears that enhancing aprofessional reputation is more important to graduate stu- GoalsandAspirations UnderqraduateGraduate dents than to undergraduates. Graduate stu- dents (as expected) are much more interested in (a) Explorenewtech- publishing papers and presenting at professional nologyorsystems 84.3 84.6 conferences. Also, more graduate students than (b) Workoncomplextech- undergraduates think that it is important to nicalproblems 62.3 72.1 develop areputation for technical contributions, (c) Learningnewtechnical both inside and outside the organization. knowledge 68.3 71.3 (d) Utilizethelatesttheo- The students inthe sample do not think that reticalresults 58.9 55.2 management achievements are as important to (e) Receivepatents 28.8 20.1 a successful career as technical achievements (f) Beevaluatedontechnical are. For example, only about one-third of both contributions 49.6 58.5 graduate and undergraduate students feel that it (g) Establishreputationout- isvery important to advance to a policy-making sideorganization 49.8 53.7 position inmanagement (o). The leadership (h) Publisharticlesintech- positions valued most are technical leadership nicaljournals 27.9 50.7 positions (j) and project planning (n). Overall, (i) Presentpapersatprofes- these students are more oriented towards being sionalmeetings 26.7 49.5 engineers than managing engineers. (j) Technicalleaderofless experiencedprofessionals 49.7 43.6 (k) Attainahigh'levelstaff Technical Communication technicalposition 49.2 51.8 (I) Planandcoordinatethe Both employers of engineers and engineers workofothers 42.7 36.2 themselves place a high value ontechnical (m) Becomeamanageror communication skills. In another survey from director 45.1 35.3 this Project (Murphy, 1994), we asked members (n) Planprojectsaffecting of the AIAA to rate the importance of oral and theorganization 51.9 46.1 written communication for performing their (o) Advancetoapolicy- professional duties. Over 90 percent of the makingposition 35.7 34.1 respondents rated oral communication very important and 80 percent.rated written commu- Thestudentsuseda7-pointscale,where7indicated nications very important. ') In apilot study of a thehighestrating,toevaluatetheimportanceofeach small sample of engineers that we conducted as factor.ThepercentageslistedinTable5arethe part of the Phase 4 activities of the Project, 87 studentswhoratedthefactoraseithera6or7. percent recommended that undergraduates take a course intechnical communication (Pinelli et al, 1991b). We expected some differences inthe undergraduates and graduates on these factors, There are many articles inthe engineering but overall there appear to be relatively few education literature about the need for technical differences except for two factors that reflect a communication skills. (See Katz, 1993; Kimmel andMonses1,979;GoubiI-Gambre1l9,92; Table6: ImportanceofSelectedSkillsandTraining. Barnum1,982;Garry,1986;Sylvester1,980; (N=950undergraduateand723graduate Devon,1985.)Arecentarticle(Evansetal, studentsp;ercentages)* 1993)containedtheresultsfromasurveyof industryemployerasndengineerinsgchool SkillsandTraininq Undergraduate Graduate alumni.Boththeemployerasndthealumni respondentssaidthattechnicaclommunication Technicalwriting skillswerethesecondmostimportanstkills Importancteocareer 81.6 87.2 (behindproblemrecognitioanndsolvingskills) Receivedtraining 73.4 71.1 forengineertsohave.Givenalistofeightskills, Helpfulnessoftraining' 56.2 49.2 bothgroupsindicatedthatengineerwsereleast well-traineidntechnicaclommunicatiosnkills. Oralpresentations Amongthealumnit,echnicaclommunication Importancetocareer 83.3 83.3 skillswereconsidereadlmostasimportanats Receivedtraining 64.8 58.0 engineerincgorecourses.Theauthorssumma- Helpfulnessoftraining' 54.1 50.3 rizethealumnsiurvey(inpart)bystating"that insufficientdevelopment of communications UsingSTImaterials skills remains achronic problem that must be Importancetocareer 82.9 76.9 addressed" (Evans et al, 1993, pg 210). Receivedtraining 68.7 55.8 Helpfulnessoftraining_ 45.8 40.5 Engineering isessentially asocial process that makes observations of the physical world and changes them into products that can be Thestudentsuseda7-pointscale,where7indicated used by others. To do so, engineers must thehighestrating,toevaluatetheimportanceofeach effectively communicate their ideas and inter- skill. ThepercentageslistedinTable6arethe pretations of their data to others. Engineers studentswhoratedthefactoraseithera6or7. build the solutions to problems partially ontheir interpretations of the work of others who pre- t The"helpfulness"percentagesarebasedonlyonthose ceded them. The ability to find and use tech- whoreportedthattheyreceivedthetraining. nical communication products effectively and the skills needed to interpret and present the find- ingsof their own and others' research are crucial Most students rec.,eivetraining intechnical to the success of engineers. communication skills. _ Ina pilot study that was part of the Phase One activities, about 70 per- Table 6contains the tabulations from three cent of the engineers and scientists surveyed questions that we asked about training intech- (AIAA members) reported they took acourse in nical communication skills and the use of STI. technical communication. 8 Asmaller proportion We interpret the data in Table 6to indicate that of the student AIAA members reported receiving the aerospace engineering students understand training intechnical communication, but some of the importance of technical communication skills this difference can be attributed to the 24 per- to their careers. Over 80 percent of both grad- cent of the AIAA member sample who reported uates and undergraduates rated these skills very receiving training after completing their degrees. important. Almost three-fourths of the students The evidence is quite clear that students recog- received training intechnical writing, and about nize the importance of the technical communi- 60 percent received training inoral pre- cation training and aretaking steps to obtain the sentations. We think these figures indicate necessary skills. clearly that engineering educators and students take seriously the message from industry and Even if engineering educators provide alumni about the importance of technical com- access to the trainingand asubstantial portion munication skills. of students take the training, the students may not perceive the training was helpful. Only about one-haft of the students who received training inthese skills rated them helpful. A smaller percentage of graduate students than undergraduates think the training was helpful. The percentages who rated the training are based only on those who received training, so only about 35 percent of the students received training that they thought was helpful. The con- trast between the availability and the helpfulness ofthe training will be discussed inthe summary. 5 Use of STI Materials To further understand the process of STI dissemination and use, inearher studies we Engineers are information collectors. They looked atthe behavior of engineers when they need information to perform their everyday tasks need information. We know that practicing en- and duties. Yet the evidence we have from our gineers (AIAA members) use their personal col- other studies is that information gathering is not lections, colleagues, supervisors, and the library, facilitated by the information-seeking behaviors inthat order, when they need technical infor- of engineers or the current aerospace STI distri- mation (Pinelli, 1991). This pattern will not nec- bution methods. The types of information that essarily provide the most up-to-date orthee_;_ost engineers seek out might bethought to com- useful information. The STI-QatherinQ activities prise acontinuum from established literature ofthe students we surveyed isvery similar to with important information that does not change those of the practicing engineers (Table 7). The (such asthe information inthe NACA reports) to patterns may be learned (or taught) as part of the most up-to-date technical information. From undergraduate education. Teaching improved our research, we think that itis relatively easy STI-gathering skills to undergraduates would be for engineers to gain access to and to use older an effective means of improving the use of STI, standard materials. Our research also indicates improvements that may prove critical to the that the passive system of STI distribution does competitive position of the US aerospace not facilitate the effective dissemination of recent industry. aerospace research. We do not interpret these data to indicate The US aerospace industry and the federal that students are not trained effectively tngath- agencies involved inaerospace (NASA, DoD, ering and using STI. For example, graduate FAA) invest heavily inaerospace research. The students are more likely to look for information in distribution of federally-funded STI uses apas- a library than to seek itfrom other students or sive system that requires considerable effort by faculty. As apoint of comparison, approximately end-users (engineers) to gather the recently- two-thirds of the AIAA sample (Pinelli, 1991) had released STI. In addition, classified and limited advanced degrees. These data from the two distribution federal aerospace research and pro- surveys indicate that, sometime after they leave prietary research conducted in industry are school, the students start to rely less onthe minimally distributed to the aerospace e.ngi- library. Many reasons might explain this neering community. To compete effectively in change, but they are beyond the scope of this the world aerospace economy, aerospace pro- paper. ducers need access to the most current research. The STI products that students use to meet their engineering information needs indicate a Table7: UseandImportanceofSelectedSTISourcesandProducts.(N=950undergraduateand723graduatestudents; percentages) UnderQraduate Graduate Source Use* Importancet Us._£e Importance Personalcollection 71.4 65.9 72.7 75.2 Otherstudents 49.1 38.4 38.6 29.2 Facultymembers 37.8 46.2 44.7 47.8 Library 32.4 34.7 49.2 46.6 Product Textbooks 88.7 80.4 78.3 72.1 Handbooks 31.5 35.2 27.9 29.9 Journalarticles 25.5 26.5 63.2 60.3 Technicalreports 18.1 21.0 36.2 38.0 Conferencepapers 10.5 13.1 39.6 46.9 * The"use"percentagesarebasedonthestudentswhoreportedusingthesourceorproductfrequently. -t Thestudentsuseda7-pointscale,where7indicatedthehighestrating,toevaluatetheimportanceofeachsourceorproduct. ThepercentageslistedinTable7arethestudentswhoratedthefactoraseithera6or7. atternof choosing what is mostaccessible, at engineering students may find thattheir inability astfor the undergraduate students. Many to effectively communicate STI is an obstacle to undergraduates can use textbooks for most of personal success. theirinformation needs. Graduate students are more likelythan undergraduates touse journal Employers cbnsider the technical communi- articles,but sincethe sample iscomprised of cation skills of new engineers to be very impor- members ofthe AIAA, we assume these stu- tant. The papers we cited earlier inthis paper _7 dentshave easy accessto journals. This differ- provide substantial evidence that both ence between graduate andundergraduate stu- aerospace industry managers and aerospace dentsmay alsobe related tothe differing engineers want newly-recruited engineers to amounts oflibraryuse they reported. have more and better technical communication Aerospace faculty andgraduate students skills. Obviously, if new engineers are well- demonstrate similaruse ofinformationsources trained intechnical communication, they are and products (Hollandet al, 1991;Pinelliet al, more likely to succeed inthe aerospace indus- 1991a). try. For most engineers, the pattems of use and The ability of engineers to gather and use the ratings of the importance of STI sources and STI is important for both the personal successes produ_s carry over from school into the work- ofthe engineers and the competitive success of place2 In general, engineers use apattern of the aerospace industry. The four factors rated relying on what isavailable nearby, what is eas- as most important to career success by the stu- ily available, and what can be obtained without dents we surveyed all require that they obtain much trouble. This pattern starts inundergrad- and use the most current STI, although old STI uate training and continues through the engi- is still valuable for much research. 1° Tools and neers' careers. Inthe last section of the paper, skills that will allow engineers to access easily we look atthe implications of these patterns and and quickly the most important recent research technical communication training for the stu- are very importantfor their careers. Their cur- dents' careers. renttrainingdoes notprovide enough ofthese skills,at least asevidenced bytheir responses tothe questions presented inthispaper. SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION Inaddition,the continuing competitive suc- The US aerospace industrydepends on US cessofthe US aerospace industryrequiresthat universitiesand colleges toprovide atech- its engineers andscientistshave access tothe nically-skilledworkforce. Some inthe best andmost currentSTI. Journals andcon- aerospace industrymayfeel that new engineers ference papers are heavily used byresearch do not receive enough trainingin technical engineers (typicallymembers ofthe AIAA). communication skills,butfor the most part, itis They alsouse in-house technical reportsheav- likelythat engineering traininginthe US isas ily. They are not heavy usersof NASA orDoD complete aspossible. Engineering education in technical reports, butthey give highlyfavorable other countriesaverages about five years evaluations ofgovernment technical reports (Doratto andAbdallah, 1993), but inthe US we (Pinelliet al, 1991e). The research conducted at expect that undergraduate degrees can be com- the NASA labsis_enerally cutting-edge and pleted infour years. Giventhe already full cur- aimed atsolvingsignificantaerospace problems, riculumofengineering schools, itisunlikelythat yetour earlier studiesindicatethat thisresearch any additionaltrainingcan be accomplished in does notdiffuse easilytothe engineering fouryears. research worldandeven lessfully todesign and development engineers (Pinelliet al,1993). We thinkthese preliminary data and our There are many reasons for thisproblem, but analysis start toanswer some importantques- the studentdata indicatethat some are the tionsabout the success of engineers and the resultof engineeringtraining. continuing success ofthe US aerospace indus- try. Training intechnical communication skills Inadequate technicalcommunication skills appears to be an importantfactor inthesuc- trainingandthe difficultiesinobtaining STI cesses of engineers, both from the employers' should notbe considered an engineering edu- perspective andfrom the perspective ofengi- cation problem alone. Itisunreasonable to ex- neering students' personal goals andaspira- pectthat colleges anduniversitiesshould solve tions. Inouranalysis of Table 5, we summa- problems that resultfrom the shortcomings of rizedthe students' aspirationsasoriented more the existingaerospace STI distributionsystem. towards technical achievements,than eithe_ran Sociologistsoften use the term "blaming the vic- enhanced reputationormanagement positions. tim"when problems are seen asthe fault ofthe Success intechnological achievements requires people whosufferfrom thedesign ofa system. that engineers communicate the value and We tend notto lookata complete systemtosee importance oftheir achievements; therefore, howmuchof aproblem isbased inthe system itself. Itis not fair to blame engineering edu- cators for the perceived shortcomings of recent ENDNOTES engineering graduates. In reality, the larger system of aerospace information producbon and 1. Data entry for this project was funded by a transfer must be examined to determine the real i_rant from the Council for Library causes ofthe problems. esources to Indiana University. Data collection and analysis were conducted as The NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge art of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Diffusion Research Projectfocuses on all nowledge Diffusion Research Project. _- Barbara Lawrence from the American aspects of STI dissemination because we Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics recognize this large system must be examined (AIAA) provided the sample of AIAA in abroad context. The problems with student members. aerospace research dissemination can be traced partially to the research producers, the distri- 2. We received 70 additional questionnaires bution system, the users, and engineering train- inwhich the respondents did not indicate a ing. Only by looking comprehensively atthe class status. entire system can we propose workable solu- 3. The students are legitimately concerned tions. about employment in aerospace. Arecent article inthe AIA Newsletter (November, Our research requires that we examine all 1993) cited a Bureau of Labor Statistics parts of the system, from the motivations of new study that showed the aerospace industry recruits to the industry, through the industrial will be more likely to cut employment inthe settings and research labs, to the policies of the future because of the lessened demand for Office of Aeronautics and Space Technology. In military aircraft (p. 6). The article also this paper, we reported on aportion of the sys- noted that reductions inengineering costs tem - the recruitment, goals, aspirations, and will improve the productivity of the industry. some small part of the training of aerospace 4. The data are not reported here, but they engineers. The results we report here areobvi- will be available inasubsequent report and ously preliminary andtentative, but they point to from the authors. some incongruities between the expectations o! new engineers and the need for training that will 5. This series of questions was adapted from help them meet their expectations. We hope to earlier studies of engineering students provide more detailed analyses and suggestions conducted by Danietson (1960) and Krulee for improvements inforthcoming papers. and Nadler (1960). 6. Inthis survey, afive-point importance scale was used where 5 indicated the "most important" rating. The percentages reported here are those who responded 4 or 5on the scale. 7. We expect to analyze these data further to determine if seniors are more likely to report receiving training and ifthe lower proportion who received training among graduate students might be related to undergraduate training inanother country. We hope to analyze other factors such as male/female differences and fluency in English at alater time. 8. These engineers and scientists were in all phases oftheir careers. 9. One exception isthe increased reliance on in-house technical reports inindustrial set- tings (Pinelli, 1991). In the aerospace industry, in-house technical reports are very access_le (PineUi et al, 1991c). 10. For example, both users and librarians report regular use of NACA reports. (Pinelli et al, 1991d). Conversations with technical information specialists during recent visits to aerospace organizations by Pinelli corroborate the survey evidence. 8