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New degree program highly anticipated
Master's degree in mechanical engineering and master's of engineering and management reflect department expansion
A new master's degree program is one of several new additions to the mechanical and manufacturing engineering department anticipated in the upcoming school year.
The master's degree in mechanical engineering will be offered this fall, said Steve Covey, professor and chairman of the mechanical and manufacturing engineering department.
"There is a lot of demand for advanced or highly skilled engineers by industry," said Covey.
"Part of the purpose of this program was to provide highly skilled engineers for the industry and to also provide working engineers a method to continue their education."
The courses for the master's program are going to be offered primarily in the evenings so working engineers who need to stay abreast of changes in the field are able to attend.
"The engineering field changes so much it is important for us to continue the education process," Covey said.
"With night classes and ITV (interactive television) the students enrolled can take some courses here or at other sites."
The master's of science of mechanical engineering is only one of the additions the department hopes to make in the 2002-2003 school year.
In the spring semester, Covey hopes to be able to offer students the masters of engineering management.
"Many students who graduate with a degree in engineering become managers within five years," Covey said.
"With the complexity of the technology in today's workplace we feel that having a master's of engineering management will provide students a unique combination of engineering understanding and management expertise," Covey said.
The department expects approval of the master's of engineering and management program sometime in October or November, Covey said.
As of this fall, SCSU will be the only university in the state other than the University of Minnesota to offer the master's degree of mechanical engineering.
According to Covey, the impact of this new program will touch not only those directly involved, but the whole department as well.
"A graduate program has a reputation to the department both internally and externally," Covey said.
"Local companies hire engineers that already have an undergraduate degree so when they think of continued education they have more reasons to come to SCSU," Covey said.
"Having a graduate program indicates we are qualified in those areas.
The graduate program also provides a convenient way for students to continue their education and increases graduate enrollment," Covey said.
Currently four students have registered for the program designed for 10-15 students. The number of students enrolled Covey attributes to several factors.
"Approval for the program came very late, in fact, the (SCSU) webpage still does not contain information about the degree so right now we are informing people about the program mainly by word of mouth.
We are recruiting current and previous students and the alumni are working with local companies so their engineers are aware we have this program in place," Covey said.
Some local businesses such as Alexandria Extrusion and Promo Machine have taken an interest in the program and Covey hopes to continue to expand the area of interest.
"After we make sure this program gets up and running on steady ground, maybe in a year or two the plan is to offer the program in the Twin Cities at a remote site, a company site, or one of the MnSCU facilities.
"We hope to expand the radius in which companies that we have been working with reside," Covey said.
"In the meantime we will continue to add graduate students and be a little bit more aggressive about obtaining funding from the national science foundation."
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