The advent of the 4th industrial revolution has dramatically accelerated the workplace, particularly for the engineering and technical world. Additionally, the changes brought to higher education and the workforce by the pandemic have also changed both the employees’ and employers’ expectations. His talk will highlight some of the most fundamental trends that have changed the face of the global workforce. Particular emphasis will be given to advents in technology and their impact on the skillsets needed for the future engineering workforce, trends in post-secondary degree programs, and the growing importance of diversity of thoughts and backgrounds in the engineering workforce.

Babak D. Beheshti, Ph.D., is a Professor and Dean of the College of Engineering and Computing Sciences (CoECS) at New York Institute of Technology.

Babak’s experience in higher education spans over 35 years, where he has served as a full-time faculty member, President of the Senate, Associate Dean, and Dean. As dean of the engineering college, Babak led the college to the introduction of its first two Ph.D. programs in computer science and engineering, two new Bachelor’s and one new Master’s degree programs, in addition to leading the college through its climb in national rankings to the top 50 best undergraduate engineering programs in the U.S.