NJIT Hosts Symposium on Boosting Safety Culture Into Undergraduate Education
NJIT and the National Academy of Construction (NAC), with the support from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine hosted a symposium to bring together members from the industry, government and academia to collectively work together to help students become much more productive when they enter the workforce and understand the concept of safety in their professions.
Patrick Natale ’70, ’75, executive director of the United Engineering Foundation, member of the NAC and a member of NJIT's Board of Overseers, moderated the symposium, which is in its third leg of a cross-country tour.
The symposia outputs will then be used in a proposed joint project with the National Academies Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment (BICE). BICE will form a National Academies project committee that will broaden and deepen the study. BICE is expected to complete the study and will publish its report through the National Academies Press in 2023.
Nicholas DeNichilo ’73, ’78, who serves as a member of the Board of Trustees and recently retired from his post as president and CEO of Mott MacDonald, North America, believes these forums provide the opportunity for the industry to engage with academia and work on ways to include the students in the process.
“Our students could really play a big part in promoting safety. Just think about computing, we can use robotics, drones, we can have a robot in the trenches to look at forensics, instead of having humans go down here,” said DeNichilo. “So there’s this opportunity to really raise the bar, how do we prepare students in order to be ready for the work.”
It’s critical to find ways to include safety as part of the curriculum. “When I went to college, we never talked about safety. It was never in the curriculum, quite frankly, over the last 50 years, not much has changed,” said DeNichilo. “So our job is to raise that bar, so that at the end of the day, we can innovate, we can be more creative, and we can make our built environment much more efficient. And that comes with safety. Safety generates quality, quality generates efficiency.”
In 2020, 106,000 serious injuries in U.S. construction
Throughout the event, one of the topics brought up was that of construction injuries and fatalities in the construction industry.
Wayne A. Crew, president and CEO of the National Academy of Construction, shared the stat to the attendees. “In 2020, we had 106,000 serious injuries in the U.S. construction industry. A hundred and six thousand people were hurt badly enough that they didn't come to work the next day, or if they did come to work, they couldn't do the function that they were supposed to do,” said Crew.
He also shared that 1,000 fatalities occur every year in the industry. In one of the panels, “Including Safety Culture Concepts in Existing and Future Course Structures,” Professor John Gambatese from the School of Civil and Construction Engineering at Oregon State University observed how countries have become more competitive as a result of increased safety measures.
“How are we being competitive if we focus on safety? If you look at the research of those organizations, even those countries … those that are at lower fatalities rate are more competitive,” noted Gambatese.
NJ Senator Paul A. Sarlo offered his perspective on safety culture
Government support was also a theme within the symposium, which was represented by New Jersey Senator Paul A. Sarlo, who holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering from NJIT. He offered that one way to prepare the students for the workforce is to increase the number of site visits, so the students can see what they learn, and how they design, in the classroom translates into what’s actually happening in the field.
“I applaud all of you for coming together. There’s a very comprehensive agenda here. I’m a friend of NJIT, and I’m a friend of industry, and safety has to be our number one goal,” he said.
President Teik C. Lim’s address gave special focus to the idea of engineering for humanity
“Today’s symposium is a great opportunity to further that mission by promoting faculty and student awareness of safety and setting the stage for future collaboration with the National Academy of Construction and all of you to assure that our students are well-versed on safety concepts and are prepared to be valued additions to your organizations upon graduation,” he said.
Lim, himself an engineer and inventor holding several patents, made emphasis that when engineers design a bridge or phone to always think that they’re designing it for humanity, and that that notion should always drive them to think about safety in their creations to the world and public. It’s important for NJIT students to know for whom and why they are designing and building something, he highlighted.
Lim turned to the impact and importance of experiential education, and how work in the field helps solidify practical elements in the profession — especially with safety.
“Students who come back from a co-op, I noticed they have a mindset that is more connected and appreciative of safety,” said Lim.
At NJIT, the NCE’s co-op program is an intensive, six-month academic and professional experience. Students participate in two co-op experiences during their matriculation.
Whereas internships and project-based learning tends to be limited in scope, co-ops offer the true experience of working, all while staying enrolled as a full-time student.
“Students spend their freshman and sophomore years participating in networking events, taking preparatory classes, and connecting with senior executives from major companies in their discipline and interest,” said Michael K. Smullen, director of undergraduate cooperative education. “With that preparation, they apply to co-ops similarly to full-time positions, interviewing and receiving offers just as they would after graduation.
“Once they accept an offer, they are fully engaged as employees at their company of choice. Throughout the experience, they must develop and utilize time and project management, social and presentation skills, and learn how to respond to work needs in hands-on, real-time environment.”
Industry and academia joining forces for “full cooperation”
In the panel “Developing a Company Culture of Safety,” chair of NJIT Board of Overseers and president and CEO of MZM Construction & Management, Marjorie Perry offered a concrete proposal on how to integrate safety into the university’s curriculum.
“I think every senior should graduate with OSHA 30, period. I think every senior should graduate with OSHA 30, that should be a requirement,” said Perry, who also added how fundamental it will also be to have mentoring programs that allow the students in engineering and architecture to have a better understanding of their field.
Dr. Moshe Kam, dean of the Newark College of Engineering, offered his point of view on where the concept of safety is heading in academia.
“We never discussed this aspect, so basically, it kind of opened an angle that we have not discussed before. It indicated: one, that industry thinks that something is missing in the students that we graduate, which means that we may be able to do something, and two, they’re interested in being part of it,” he noted. “Usually, when industry requests us, they basically send us a letter that says ‘Teach the students this kind of software, teach the students this kind of control.’ Here, they say, ‘We want to come to you, we want you to come to us, we want to try to work on this thing together.’ So it's an opportunity for full cooperation.”
To close out the day, attendees got together in two breakout sessions, which provided a space for members of academia and industry to share their perspectives on how things can improve. After the completion of each breakout they offered reports.
After the first breakout, “Providing Input to Educators,” one of the groups offered an infographic idea that professors could use in their courses. The three As they called it, which stands for - acumen, active and accountability.
