Expanding Professional Education Programs
UW Engineering is greatly expanding its educational outreach efforts through master's degree and certificate programs for engineering professionals, the cover story for this issue of The Trend.
These programs offer great benefits to engineers seeking advanced training and to their employers, who rely on a highly educated workforce for the innovation, knowledge, and know-how needed to compete in today's global economy.
"From every perspective, professional education programs are win win win."
Matt O'Donnell, Dean of the UW College of Engineering
Based on U.S. Department of Labor statistics, an engineering master's degree offers the best return on investment of any educational dollar. It opens career opportunities, affords a short payback time, and enormous lifetime net income gain compared to investment.
By every measure, the last three years have seen impressive growth in our professional programs. We've added more students and new courses; we've granted more degrees and taken in more revenue, which bolsters our graduate programs at a time when state budgets are tightening. To meet the growing need for continuing education, we aim to double our capacity in the next five years. We hear raves about our faculty and their courses, and we firmly intend to maintain quality.
These programs are an important new connector between the college and local industry. Standard pathways to industry are high-end research partnerships and UW graduates who take entry-level positions. Professional programs are in the middle, providing cost-effective ways for companies to offer employees advanced training, and enabling our faculty to develop one-on-one ties that can lead to new collaborations.
Professional programs can also help us forge stronger relationships with industry and universities beyond the U.S. For example, we are negotiating aeronautical engineering partnerships in the Middle East and aeronautical, chemical, and civil engineering partnerships in China. From every perspective, professional education programs are win win win.
The college works with UW Educational Outreach for most administrative and marketing functions related to these programs. UWEO is one of the largest extension programs in the nation and as such knows how to manage.
For its efforts, the College of Engineering has received the 2011 Excellence in Engineering Education Collaboration Award from the American Society of Engineering Education. The award honors the composite materials program sponsored by the Department of Aeronautics & Astronautics and The Boeing Company, a partnership that has served more than 1,400 engineers since 2005.
Pat Stayton Leading Molecular Engineering and Science Institute
The new Molecular Engineering and Science Institute will have a gleaming new home in January 2012 when it moves into the Molecular Engineering and Science Building under construction near the west entrance to campus. The building's research space will catalyze interdisciplinary collaborations and technology breakthroughs in the two main thrust areas of medical therapies and sustainable energy.
The institute's director is Pat Stayton, who holds the Washington Research Foundation Endowed Chair in Bioengineering. He also directs the UW Center for Intracellular Delivery of Biologics. Stayton is assembling clusters of faculty from Engineering and other UW units who will work across interdisciplinary boundaries.
"Pat Stayton is the right person for the job," said Dean Matt O'Donnell. "His world-class research in molecular drug delivery systems, coupled with his passion for teaching and outreach, make him the perfect founding director."
View of the MolE Building's south and west facades, covered with a temporary protective coating. See slide show updates and a web cam.