Involving Industry in the Design of Courses, Programs, and A Systems Engineering and Engineering Management Department

摘要

On July 1, 2000 Stevens Institute of Technology created a new Systems Engineering and Engineering Management (SEEM) department. Through a unique partnership with industry and selected government agencies in the area of short courses, graduate programs, and applied research, the department has grown to over 60 masters and 30 PhD students in one year. In terms of revenue from short courses and off campus programs, the department is now second within the school of engineering. This paper will provide the details and lessons learned of how we designed, marketed, and executed three non traditional certificate and masters programs and two PhD degree granting programs centered on technology, engineering, systems, and management. Partnership with industry and government agencies within key market domains was the cornerstone of our strategy. At the strategic level we will discuss ideas on how to target market large employers of engineers, attracting faculty, balancing resource allocation for income activities versus break even or money losing activities such as research and undergraduate education, partnering with traditional engineering departments, the role of web based learning, and most importantly managing expectations for growth and income. Other seemingly trite yet important issues such as the naming of programs, how to best utilize web versus hard copy for marketing information, the role of an advisory board, and how to create the environment of mutual beneficial existence with the traditional engineering departments will also be discussed. This paper, though hardly a road map for creating new programs or a department, will provide insight to the thought processes and steps needed to create modern and relevant programs to educate engineers in the 21st century.