Curriculum
This curriculum for the B.S.E. degree program is designed to let individual students focus on their individual needs in a fashion that is virtually unique inside the United States. The curriculum offered is designed to be a part of a fully accredited engineering program that meets the national standards for engineering education.
The curriculum can be categorized in course types. These types include:
Click on each course type name for more information.
To see the Major Map for the degree program, which shows you what specific courses to take and when to take them, visit the Major Map page on this Web site.
Project Course
Every semester there is a three- to four-semester-hour project course. In these project courses, students work in teams to design products and solve realistic engineering problems.
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Module Courses
One of the main distinguishing features of our program is the modules, which start in the second semester and are a crucial component of the sophomore year. These modules are one-semester-hour "chunks" of standard engineering topics such as mechanics or electrical signals and instrumentation.
In each semester of the sophomore year, students will five modules. One module is packaged in with the project course, as it is the module that is of most importance to success in the project. The other four modules are taken as a package. This package supplements the self-study modules with regular in-class activities that build on the topic coverage of the four modules.
The actual module selection varies from semester to semester as we make the selection guided by the chosen project topic. In this approach the project supplies a context that often automatically answers the single most commonly voiced student question: "Why do I need to know this?"
A general feature of the project experience is that it culminates in an oral examination of the team conducting the project. Each team member is expected to be able to answer technical questions about the project. People from industry have noted that the effect is that our students practice job-interviewing skills every single semester.
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Program of Study Courses
Program of study courses are part of the General Education program but they are created and staffed by the faculty of the Department of Engineering. In the first semester, we have a course that studies the historical development of globalization and industrialization. These two on-going historical processes are likely to significantly affect our students’ professional lives and careers, and we wish to help students gain an historical perspective that will increase their professional career agility. Other program of study courses are in Critical Inquiry and Literacy. In these courses we work with students in the development not only of communication skills but more importantly in critical thinking skills, another important part of professional career agility.
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Focus Area Courses
In the junior and senior years, students will select a primary area of focus. The focus areas for the degree are Civil Engineering-Land Development, Electrical Engineering Systems, and Mechanical Engineering Systems.
In addition, you will select a secondary area of focus. This secondary area is intended to be a focused set of 12 semester hours in some specific topic. This could be in engineering. You could study both electrical and mechanical systems, one as a primary and the other as a secondary focus. The secondary also could lie outside of engineering. It could be in business, or a foreign language, or even automotive engineering technology. It is your choice!
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Math/Science or General Studies Courses
Math and science courses or General Education courses satisfy university-wide degree requirements. The math and science content of our degree satisfies the same accreditation requirement for math and science that all ABET accredited programs in engineering, no matter the specialty, are asked to meet. Our program is not a "math-lite" program.
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Elective Courses
Lastly, we have nine semester hours of unrestricted elective. These unrestricted electives could be used to study even more engineering, to ease transfer issues for transfer students, or just to intellectually explore.
The net effect of the B.S.E. curriculum is that students must take 48 hours of engineering courses, 32 hours of math and science, 15 hours of humanities and social science and 12 hours of courses that emphasize communications. The secondary area of focus and unrestricted electives, however, give 21 hours of flexibility. The individual student therefore makes his/her own final decision about issues such as a breadth/depth tradeoff. As a student, you could take as many as 69 hours of engineering in our program and minimal amounts of everything else. On the other hand, you could take 48 hours of engineering and 30 hours of work in some recognized area of the humanities or social sciences. Or, you could take 48 hours of engineering, minimal humanities and 21 hours of business courses.
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