Princeton Weekly Bulletin, March 30, 1998
Engineer, industrialist returns to academia
By Chris Jensen
Imagine
you're an engineer who designs skyscrapers. One of your buildings
was just completed in New York City. Doing some calculations, you
-- and you alone -- unexpectedly discover a design flaw that makes
it vulnerable to catastrophic damage by high winds. How do you
respond?
Princeton students will grapple with this and other real-life cases in a new undergraduate course taught this spring by Norman Augustine, who spent four decades in government and industry before returning to the classroom this semester as lecturer with rank of professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Most recently CEO of Lockheed Martin Corp., Augustine holds 1957 BSE and 1959 MSE degrees in aeronautical engineering from Princeton. A former defense undersecretary, he built Martin Marietta into an aerospace giant before helping to orchestrate the merger with Lockheed three years ago that created the world's largest aerospace and defense company. He resigned as CEO of that company last year (though he retains the position of chair).
In industry, Augustine led a work force of 65,000 engineers. Though many had strong technical backgrounds, they often lacked other essential skills, he says. "Many engineers could stand a lot of improvement in their ability to communicate -- not to mention their awareness of ethical issues and their ability to deal with political issues," he observes.
Engineering the Leader
Augustine hopes to change this. His first course, Engineering the Leader, focuses on how engineering intersects with public policy, business economics, ethics and the history of technology. Some 70 students registered for it. Names were drawn at random to fill the 20 available places: 10 for engineering students and 10 for liberal arts majors.
"This is the course I wish I'd had when I was here," Augustine says.
"The idea is not only to prepare engineers to live in the real world but to prepare liberal arts students who are going to have to deal with technical issues more and more themselves.
He suggests that to be technologically disadvantaged in the 21st century will be roughly equivalent to not being able to drive a car in the 20th century. To test your preparedness to enter the 21st century, he asks: Do you know how to set the clock on your VCR -- or does it simply blink 12:00 all day and night? Do you know how to reprogram the entry code in your home burglar alarm -- or do you leave that to the burglars? Can you reset the stations on your car radio buttons -- or are you still listening to the music your car dealer liked?
Working in teams
By bringing real examples into the classroom and letting students tackle them together, Augustine hopes to help prepare future leaders.
"It's very hard to teach leadership and ethics," he says. "I think you have to experience them. I've seen a lot of people make terrible mistakes without intending to. I hope to teach awareness, the need to stop and think."
Many of the case studies Augustine uses in the course involve people he knows personally. He plans to change details in some cases and only reveal the real story after students seek and present their own solutions.
By design, students work in teams for much of the course. "Most education is still done on a very individual basis, but almost everything outside is done as a team," he notes. "Leadership is much more of a team skill these days. By and large things don't get done by giving orders."
20 students waiting
Augustine is both excited and a bit anxious about his new life as a professor. "When I was running Lockheed, I could cancel a meeting if I had to. Now, at class time 20 students are waiting, and I've got to be there for them."
A former University trustee and a current trustee of Johns Hopkins, Augustine was recently named principal officer and a member of the board of governors of the American Red Cross by President Clinton. He was previously president of the Boy Scouts of America and national chair of the U.S. Savings Bond Campaign. He has written three books -- most recently, Augustine's Travels: A World-Class Leader Looks at Life, Business, and What It Takes to Succeed at Both (1997). He is planning a trip to the North Pole this summer.
Augustine says that teaching at his alma mater is both an honor and a challenge. "It's a thrill to be back, a great thrill to see Princeton from the inside again. It brings home what a remarkable place of teaching and research this University is. What we sometimes took for granted as students is, in fact, a national treasure."