On this page Engineering graduate students can find a broad and growing collection of resources you can access on your own schedule to further enrich your academic and professional growth at the Clark School. Please reach out to ENGR Graduate Affairs to suggest additional resources to share!

Book Recommendations

The titles listed and linked here are resources that faculty, staff, or other students have recommended for developing skills or perspectives relevant to graduate students in engineering. All texts are readily available through the University Libraries with links provided.

If you have recommendations or requests for additions to this list or the Libraries catalog, please contact ENGR Graduate Affairs. You can also request more "copies" to be made available for particular texts if they are in high use. Students can claim credit for reading or suggesting books through our Suitable App Book Club!

The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson

Description: The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a gripping account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies. - Available in eBookrecommended by Dr. Min Wu, Associate Dean & ECE Professor.

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson

Description: Following his blockbuster biography of Steve Jobs, The Innovators is Walter Isaacson's revealing story of the people who created the computer and the Internet. It is destined to be the standard history of the digital revolution and an indispensable guide to how innovation really happens. What were the talents that allowed certain inventors and entrepreneurs to turn their visionary ideas into disruptive realities? - Available in eBook; recommended by Dr. Min Wu, Associate Dean & ECE Professor.

 

Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-lived, Joyful Life by William Burnett & David J. Evans

Description: Designers create worlds and solve problems using design thinking. Look around your office or home -- at the tablet or smartphone you may be holding or the chair you are sitting in. Everything in our lives was designed by someone. And every design starts with a problem that a designer or team of designers seeks to solve. In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are. - Available in eBook; recommended by Dr. Min Wu, Associate Dean & ECE Professor.

 

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

Description: In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people--both seasoned and new--that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called "grit." Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur "genius" Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. - Available in eBook; recommended by Dr. Min Wu, Associate Dean & ECE Professor.

 

The Outward Mindset: How to Change Lives and Transform Organizations by the Arbinger Institute

Description: When faced with personal ineffectiveness or lagging organizational performance, most of us instinctively look for quick-fix behavioral band-aids, not recognizing the underlying mindset at the heart of our most persistent challenges. Through true stories and ... guidance and tools, [this book may enable] individuals and organizations to make the one change that most dramatically improves performance, sparks collaboration, and accelerates innovation--a shift to an outward mindset. - Available in eBook; recommended by Dr. Min Wu, Associate Dean & ECE Professor.

 

New Power: How Power Works in Our Hyperconnected World and How to Make It Work for You by Jeremy Heimans & Henry Timms

Description: In this indispensable guide to navigating the twenty-first century, two visionary thinkers reveal the unexpected ways power is changing and how "new power" is reshaping politics, business, and life. Why do some leap ahead while others fall behind in our chaotic, connected age? In New Power, Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms confront the biggest stories of our time-the rise of mega-platforms like Facebook and Uber; the out-of-nowhere victories of Obama and Trump; the unexpected emergence of movements like #MeToo-and reveal what's really behind them: the rise of "new power." - Available in eBook; recommended by Christopher Bender, Assistant Dean for Communications.

 

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works by Alan G. Lafley & Roger L. Martin

Description: Strategy is not complex. But it is hard. It's hard because it forces people and organizations to make specific choices about their future -- something that doesn't happen in most companies. Now two of today's best-known business thinkers get to the heart of strategy--explaining what it's for, how to think about it, why you need it, and how to get it done. - Available in eBook; recommended by Christopher Bender, Assistant Dean for Communications.

 

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

Description: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty? In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way-and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. - Available in eBook; recommended by Christopher Bender, Assistant Dean for Communications.

 


E-Learning Platforms

Beyond the Professoriate

Doctoral students and Postdoctoral Scholars of all disciplines have 24/7 access to Beyond the Professoriate. It provides both asynchronous, recorded content & scheduled, live webinars. Learn more about it from the Graduate School here or access the platform directly here. Students can earn credit for participating in these activities on the Suitable app!

LinkedIn Learning at UMD

Recommended by Engineering Career Services, take LinkedIn Learning Career Development courses. Students can earn credit for participating in these activities on the Suitable app! Some courses you might start exploring:


Top