Utah State University approved a new engineering technology degree, in hopes of giving students more opportunities.
The degree is intended to bridge the gap between academia and industry. The program was designed with input from both areas to give students more knowledge and experiences.
Richard Hawkes is the director of programs at Northrop Grumman and was vital in the conception and development of this new degree.
“I recognized with my team that we had a whole bunch of very skilled technicians who, in order to progress in their careers, needed those degrees," Hawkes said. "Say what you will about, people say, 'Well, it's a piece of paper.' And no, it's not a piece of paper. These degrees teach people or employees how to think, and we wanted them to go through that, get that exposure."
This new program has been designed in conjunction with people in industry and emphasizes a hands-on approach for those students more interested in the applied side of engineering.
Andrew Deceuster is the associate department head of the Technology, Design, and Technical Education program at USU.
“A lot of the courses will tend to have similar names between traditional engineering and engineering technology," he said. "What the difference comes down to is typically engineering technology, almost all the classes will have some kind of lab or some kind of hands on component, where you might not get those in all of your traditional engineering classes. There's typically gonna be more of a hands on element to it, as compared to more of the deep dive into the theory between the classes. So that's where we tend to have the biggest difference.”
The new program is also intended to give those already in industry the opportunity to further their skills and education. Jerald Kellar is a new engineering technology faculty member who came from industry. He stressed the importance of having this opportunity.
“These professionals, technical, very technical, very skilled people that need to be able to have a degree in order to take the next step in their career, and this provides them with the opportunity to do that,” Kellar stated.
This degree has been in progress for six years and was approved at the end of July, allowing the first class of students to begin this August.
Find out more about the new program at usu.edu
