“The interlock addressing the four problems I’ve described is the mission of Penn State’s Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education. It is designed to stimulate interest in the field of engineering among top-grade high school students; make the engineering curricula at Penn State more interesting, challenging and rewarding; and encourage the best of the best students to remain on campus after graduation and accept faculty positions.”

William E. Leonhard

Founder and Advisory Board Member
The Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education
Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Retired
The Parsons Corporation

Bill Leonhard, founder of the Leonhard Center, retired in May, 1990, from The Parsons Corporation, where he had served for twenty-four years. Parsons, headquartered in Pasadena, California, provides engineering services in the transportation, power, environmental, petroleum, and chemical and defense installation fields. A technical staff of more than 8,000 employees works in permanent offices in sixty cities throughout the world.

Prior to joining Parsons, Mr. Leonhard served fourteen years in the U.S. Air Force. He retired as a general in 1964. During that time, he served as chief engineer in postwar Germany, a period that included the Berlin Airlift; as deputy commander of the Air Force Missile and Space Division; and as Chief of Staff of the Air Force Systems Command.

Mr. Leonhard also served fourteen years in the Army Corps of Engineers. In the Corps, he served in Panama, on the Alcan Highway, and during World War II, as Chief of Staff of the Second and Twentieth Armored Divisions in Europe.

A well-known advocate of engineering education, Mr. Leonhard has made an impact on the College of Engineering and other engineering institutions. At Penn State, he has consistently offered advice and support to engineering programs and has endowed the William Leonhard Chair in Acoustical Engineering and the Leonhard Professorship in Microelectronics. He also serves, or has served, on the Boards of Trustees or visiting committees at Penn State; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the California Institute of Technology; the University of California, Los Angeles; Pepperdine University; the University of Southern California; and Harvey Mudd College.

In 1982, he was elected into the National Academy of Engineering and was named a Penn State Distinguished Alumnus. In 1988, Mr. Leonhard was honored as a Penn State Alumni Fellow.

Mr. Leonhard received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Penn State and a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a graduate of the War College.

“Every ‘fix-it’ need has its origin in an identified problem. What prompted the concept of creating a center for engineering education can best be expressed as a response to several distinct problems strung out in a connected chain:

1. The Engineering field may be losing the competitive battle for quality high school graduates. They seem to be drawn to other professional fields for a variety of reasons.

2. The attrition rate of engineering students during their first two years in college is far too high. Is there enough engineering content in the curricula of these first two years to sustain their interest in engineering? Do students see more attractive opportunity for careers in other professions?

3. There is much more to be learned today in the education process than was required two, and even one, generations ago. Is it time to face up to this reality and to extend to five years the schedule for receiving a baccalaureate degree in engineering? Additional courses to improve a student’s communications skills would have lasting value in his or her career.

4. Interest in engineering and progress in learning are enhanced or hindered by classroom conditions. Is there a language barrier between the instructor and his or her students? Good instructors are good communicators; their courses are oversubscribed. Does failure in this regard contribute to high transfers to other disciplines?

That sums up the situation that confronts this country today. Let’s look at it as a major challenge--a challenge that can be met with an effective program to improve the engineering education process, as visualized in the Leonhard Center charter.”