Irina Benedyk,
Assistant Professor
CSEE Department
University at Buffalo
Multi-Year Leadership Competency Analysis
“Engineering leadership consists of capabilities and values that transform technical people from individual contributors into those who can lead teams to deliver a complex multi-disciplinary product” © Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.
Why This Project?
The ABET Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) represent the gold standard for engineering education, ensuring graduates possess both technical skills and professional competencies necessary to thrive in a complex, global workforce.
However, a persistent challenge remains: while engineering students often excel in quantitative analysis and design, many struggle to develop essential "soft skills" such as effective communication (SLO 3), ethical responsibility (SLO 4), and the ability to function on multidisciplinary teams (SLO 5). These critical leadership qualities are often sidelined by the rigorous demands of technical coursework, leaving graduates ill-equipped for the collaborative realities of the modern engineering landscape.
Project Bridge2
Project Bridge2 is designed to address this critical gap, providing a structured, data-driven approach to leadership development that empowers students to cultivate these vital professional skills through continuous evaluation and self-reflection.
To evaluate impacts of this project, I started surveying students using 'Leadership' survey. After multiple years of collecting data, I can now present some results and discuss my insights.
From 2023 to 2026
This longitudinal dataset captures the evolution of student leadership across four cohorts, transitioning from the COVID-impacted 2023 (surveyed twice) and 2024 (surveyed thrice) groups—which included a business concepts criterion and vertical integration for 20% of students—to the 2025 and 2026 cohorts, which standardized a three-phase evaluation model without those legacy elements while introducing revised Weekly Group Assignments.
Individual Cohort Analysis
The 2026 cohort continued the streamlined, three-phase evaluation approach and introduced newly revised Weekly Group Assignments to better support ongoing leadership development.
The 2025 cohort established a new baseline with three evaluation phases, officially removing the "Business Concepts" criterion and vertical integration to focus strictly on core engineering leadership traits.
Also representing a COVID-impacted cohort, the 2024 group expanded the evaluation to three phases while retaining both the business criterion and the vertical integration activity.
The 2023 cohort, composed largely of students who began their studies during the Fall 2020 pandemic, was evaluated twice and featured a "Business Concepts" criterion along with a vertical integration activity for 20% of the class.