Contact: Robbie Ward
STARKVILLE, Miss.--Designed primarily for working professional engineers unable to take traditional courses, Mississippi State now is offering an interdisciplinary master of engineering degree through distance learning.
The recently approved academic curriculum should significantly enhance a goal of the university's Bagley College of Engineering to provide a graduate educational experience for employees of companies located throughout the Southeastern United States, said Roger King, associate dean of research and graduate studies.
"This master's program is especially designed to meet the needs of the practicing engineer," King said. "The ability to tailor a program that suits each student's needs and provides the flexibility of the Internet is its real benefit."
King and Rita Burrell, graduate and distance education manager for the college, developed the distance-education program that was approved late last year by the Board of Trustees, State Institutions of Higher Learning.
King said the program meets all institution-wide standards and provides consistent quality in faculty instruction. Most courses are being taught simultaneously to on-campus students, with distant students using software that allows interaction among both groups.
About 25 students are expected to be enrolled by the conclusion of the spring semester, King added.
King said the interdisciplinary nature of the degree also enables students to develop programs of study unique to their individual requirements. Still, each participant must meet the same requirements of other college graduate programs.
Charles Ford of Metairie, La., an engineer at the New Orleans-based process and energy division of URS Corp., recently enrolled with the goal of advancing his career.
"The power engineering curriculum and other electrical engineering graduate courses offer an array of areas to choose from with the potential of being directly applicable to my current job," Ford said.
Although marketed toward working engineers, Burrell said the program affords an opportunity to all non-traditional engineering majors interested in completing a graduate degree who don't have access to traditional campus programs.
For more information about the distance learning program, contact Rita Burrell at 662-325-5923 or rburrell@bagley.msstate.edu.
For more information about Mississippi State University, see http://www.msstate.edu/.