Program Option Courses

This group of courses is selected by students to provide a program of study oriented to their individualized educational career goals. The program option can include courses from throughout the University, including additional engineering courses. For most program options, these should be 300-, 400-, and 500-level courses. Each student is encouraged to design a curriculum that reflects his/her individual goals. Some of the possible options are identified below. (Some options involve combined or dual degree programs with other schools and colleges; although, that is not the route most students take.)

Pre-Law

Students choose this option to prepare for law school to become attorneys in a law firm or to specialize in an area such as corporate law where they use their technical training as a member of a corporate staff. However, a B.S.E. degree from any engineering department is a viable pre-law alternative.  Some extra steps may be necessary after an interdisciplinary engineering degree for a concentration in Patent law since the degree is not ABET accredited.

Pre-Medicine

Students choose this option to become physicians or to go into biomedical research where they can use their technical training. However, any engineering degree is also an appropriate pre-medical degree. The interdisciplinary program is the only one in the college where a student can meet all pre-med requirements and still only take 128 credits to graduate with an engineering degree.

Pre-Bioengineering

Students choose this option to prepare for a graduate program in bioengineering, a field applied to problems in living systems and in design of new biological structures. However, graduate programs in bioengineering do not require undergraduate training in bioengineering, so several other B.S.E. degrees are also excellent preparation.

Pre-Business Administration or Business Administration

Many students combine business courses with engineering courses to prepare for a career in business. Some students earn a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) after completing a B.S. in Engineering. About half of all engineers who enter industry eventually assume managerial responsibilities. Students interested in this program option should consider whether or not a degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering would be more appropriate than the B.S. (Engineering) degree. Furthermore, any engineering degree provides sound preparation for an M.B.A. program.

Technical Sales and Applications Engineering

Students combine engineering, communications, and business to prepare for positions in these fields. Many companies require sales engineers to design and market products that meet the needs of other corporations and government agencies. These persons serve as liaison between their corporations' research, design, product, and manufacturing engineers and the customers' engineers and managers.

Appropriate Technology

Students interested in alternative technologies design program options in appropriate technology, alternative energy resources, or environmental systems.

Urban and Regional Planning

An increasing number of engineers become planners and administrators in urban systems because they know sophisticated technology or are trained in problem solving and systems design. Related options are in architecture, sociology, natural resources, and transportation. This option primarily is a pre-graduate school option.

Technical Design

Some students pursue a combined degree program with the School of Art, usually in industrial design, but occasionally in graphics. The combination prepares students for careers meeting challenges in human/technology interface systems or in computer graphics.

Technical and Professional Communication

Students choose this option either to enhance their qualifications for careers as managers in industry, business, and government or to prepare themselves for careers as technical communicators. The option is distinctive in the United States because its graduates combine engineering skills while concentrating on communication skills. It is good preparation for a graduate program in technical communication.  Fundamental classes are offered in fluid mechanics, combustion, and turbulent mixing. A graduate laboratory class is offered in high temperature gas dynamics. Applied propulsion classes include Rocket Propulsion and Turbojet Propulsion. Research covers the areas of laser-based flow visualization, velocity field imaging, holography, spray combustion, supersonic mixing, hydrogen combustion in a scramjet-like device, and soot formation.

Science

Students choose this option to prepare for a graduate program in mathematics, biology, or one of the physical sciences. Students choosing this option select a program of study roughly equivalent to that of a mathematics or science student in LSA. Other options for such students are the pre-Bioengineering option and the Engineering Physics option.

Engineering Concentration Courses

The engineering concentration courses complement the program option courses. The student elects a sequence of engineering courses that must have coherence with respect to subject matter and progression with respect to level of study. In environmental studies, for example, program option courses in the life sciences, natural resources, or geophysical sciences are complemented by engineering concentration courses from Civil and Environmental Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences. In business administration, courses in systems, planning, management, operations, decision-making, and design - from several engineering fields - complement the program option. These should be 300-, 400-, and 500-level courses.

Engineering Science Courses

The Engineering Science courses provide science-based skills applicable to engineering problems. Most courses are at the 200- and 300-level and are prerequisites for many advanced engineering courses. These courses for the most part are those required in all engineering degree programs.

Each student in the program must select courses from the list in at least four of the following areas:

• Computer Methods
  CEE 303 (4), AOSS 410 (4), EECS 280 (4) 
• Electrical
  EECS 230 (4), EECS 215 (4) 
• Environmental
  CEE 260 (4), AOSS 300 (3), AOSS 320 (4), NERS211 (4) 
• Materials
  MSE 250 (4), ME 382 (4) , MSE 220 (4)
• Mechanical
  ME 211 (4), ME 240 (4), NAME 320 (4) or ME 320 (3)
• Systems
  IOE 201 (2) and 202 (2), IOE 265 (4), IOE 310 (4)
• Thermodynamics
  ME 235 (3) or ChemE 230 (4)

Together with the engineering concentration courses, these courses provide the engineering basis of the B.S. (Engineering) degree. These requirements must be adhered to.