Abstract
It is no mystery that we are in a time of great technological innovation. Many researchers have stated that technological growth is exponential rather than linear. Also, humanity's reliance on technology is at an all-time high. Digital technology facilitates nearly every part of our lives, which results in new problems. The rapid change in technological industries requires new employees with the skills needed to help innovate. In addition, existing infrastructure changes are necessary to accommodate this new status quo better. This paper speaks to these two issues with a specific example in my technical project and a study on academic-industry partnerships to better prepare STEM students for the workforce.
The sociotechnical portion of my thesis deals with academic-industry partnerships and best practices for them. Academic-industry partnerships have a long history, dating back to the Industrial Revolution. They are helpful tools for combining the research happening in universities with the economic focus of companies. I argue that they could solve a new problem we are facing. A large percentage of recent graduates report feeling unprepared for the workforce, particularly 40% of STEM graduates, who report feeling unprepared for their new jobs. This statistic is a significant issue considering the new age of innovation. My paper argues that academic-industry partnerships can help bridge this gap, as students get opportunities to gain early exposure to their desired industries and what skills they will need when they graduate. I conducted a review of case studies of past and current partnerships and determined consistent metrics to differentiate successful and unsuccessful partnerships. From there, I extrapolated common attributes of successful partnerships to give a concise collection of what makes partnerships succeed. The main qualities I found were the government acting as a facilitator rather than a manager, clear communication, defined intellectual property agreements, and
sustainability. Generally, if partnerships had these characteristics then students would graduate ready to contribute to innovation in their respective industries.
My technical project described the two pieces of work I completed in Electric Transmission Area Planning for a Virginia-based electrical utility. The first of those being an automation tool to accumulate data from certain documents and providing them in a centralized location. This utility company has been serving power to Virginia for many years and certain parts of their system are outdated. For this particular project the database containing documents known as delivery point requests was not uniform at all. Meaning it was difficult to find those documents quickly. My tool would conduct a database wide search for certain document characteristics, extract relevant information, and compile it in a centralized location.
The second of my projects was end-user documentation for a new team tool. The tool was a software to run electric transmission reliability studies remotely. Previously, those studies needed to be run on the team’s local machines, which could take up to 2-3 days. This tool was extremely new, so I was tasked to write documentation on how to use it. I conducted interviews with the developer to understand how the tool worked and with my team members to determine what information was the most important for them to have. Once I did that I wrote documentation that included instructions for running each study type, detailed descriptions of study types, explanations of all outputs, frequently asked questions, and troubleshooting tips. This documentation could better serve new hires and current employees to use that unfamiliar software.
This paper highlights the need for workforce readiness amid rapid technological change. My technical work improved efficiency and onboarding at a utility company through automation and clear documentation. My sociotechnical research argues that academic-industry partnerships
can better prepare STEM students by offering real-world experience and aligning education with industry needs. Together, these projects show how both infrastructure and education must evolve to meet the demands of innovation and ensure graduates are equipped to contribute meaningfully to the modern workforce.
