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2012-2013 Undergraduate & Graduate Catalog

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School of Engineering

Undergraduate Engineering Degree Programs

The School of Engineering offers a four-year program leading to the degree of Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) with emphases in computer, electrical, interdisciplinary, mechanical, and product design and manufacturing engineering. During the first two years students take courses fundamental to engineering in preparation for admission to their emphasis area and cooperative education experience in industry. Integrated cooperative engineering education allows students the opportunity to gain industrial experience before graduation. During the last two years of the program students alternate periods of cooperative education in industry with academic study. The interdisciplinary engineering program allows students to tailor their engineering education in preparation for careers in emerging fields. All engineering emphasis programs are capped by a multidisciplinary two-semester senior design project requiring initiative, planning, and design.

B.S.E. Degree Goal and Objectives

The goal of the B.S.E. degree program is to prepare students to assume engineering positions in industry with the potential to advance to leadership positions. In pursuing this goal, students may emphasize one or more traditional engineering disciplines: computer, electrical, product design and manufacturing or mechanical engineering; or they may pursue an interdisciplinary emphasis tailored to their specific educational needs.

The program objectives are that a student graduating from the B.S.E. program must (1) have the technical knowledge and capabilities expected of a practicing engineer appropriate to the discipline; (2) be able to function effectively in an industrial environment. He or she must have the ability to communicate effectively, engage in critical thinking, and have highly developed skills in problem solving in both individual and team situations; (3) have the ability to apply engineering knowledge and be able to create physical realizations of his or her theoretical concepts and models; (4) have the ability to engage in engineering design; (5) have an awareness of the need for continued professional growth; and (6) have an awareness of, and sensitivity to, those areas in which engineering practice affects society and the environment. Such awareness, extending beyond technical knowledge to include ethical and social responsibility, must frame the continued professional and scholarly growth of the graduate.

Engineering Design

Design is central to the practice of engineering. The curriculum has been developed to integrate design education throughout all four years of the program. The students experience begins in the freshman year with instruction and practice in computer-aided design and product realization, the design of computer software, and engineering problem-solving using current computer software and hardware tools. Design instruction continues in the sophomore year through the use of activities such as design projects, materials selection exercises, and quality assurance methods. Building upon the engineering science and design developed in the first two years and the experience gained in the integrated cooperative education program, substantially more mature design experiences begin in the junior year. The cooperative education program, which continues through the junior and senior years, also contributes substantially to student preparation for the two-semester capstone senior design experience. The majority of the senior design projects each year are performed for companies in west Michigan. Exercises that address environmentally responsible design are integrated throughout the curriculum.

Industry Involvement

Grand Valleys B.S.E. degree program has wide community and industrial support. Individuals and industries in Michigan have supported the program financially as well as by providing opportunities for cooperative engineering education. The program is served by an Industrial Advisory board composed of engineering leaders and others in the field. Additionally, Grand Valleys Career Services Office also provides liaison between the engineering program and industry.

Student Preparation and Guidance

The B.S.E. degree program is highly structured. Careful planning by students, in consultation with their engineering advisor, is essential. Students considering an engineering career should consult an engineering advisor at the earliest possible opportunity, preferably before registering for their first semester. A consultation meeting with an advisor can be arranged by contacting the School of Engineering. Students who have declared engineering as their major are assigned an academic advisor from the faculty of the School of Engineering.

High school students considering an engineering career are urged to take a college preparatory program consisting of at least three years of laboratory science, including one year of physics and one year of chemistry; four years of mathematics, including two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and one half year of trigonometry; one half year of computer programming; four years of English, including composition; two years of a single foreign language; and three years of social studies.

Properly prepared students can complete the B.S.E. program in four calendar years. Students who are not prepared to begin the B.S.E. program with Mathematics 201 (Calculus and Analytic Geometry I), or who prefer to not carry the average course load of 16 credit hours per semester, will need a longer period of study to complete their engineering degree. Students who wish to pursue the B.S.E. degree after transferring from a two-year school should normally enroll in a pre-engineering program before transferring to Grand Valley.

Admission

Students with no previous college credit, or those who have not completed the 64-semester-hour engineering foundations course sequence, are admitted to the School of Engineering as pre-majors. The engineering foundations course sequence spans the freshman and sophomore years and develops the fundamental knowledge on which an engineering emphasis is built.

The School of Engineering admits students directly to major standing as freshmen. This honor is reserved for students who have both a 29 or higher composite score and a 32 or higher mathematics score on the ACT and a 3.6 or higher high school GPA. In order to continue direct-admit status, students must maintain an overall GPA of 2.7 and earn at least a C (2.0) in each course. Students whose GPA falls below 2.7 will be reclassified as pre-majors and need to apply to the School of Engineering via the normal admission process.

Students who intend to pursue the B.S.E. degree are urged to declare engineering as their major as soon as possible, preferably before they first register for courses at Grand Valley. Students must formally declare engineering as their major before the end of the drop-add period of the fall semester of the academic year in which they are seeking admission to major standing.

Admission to major standing in the B.S.E. program requires a secondary application. Applicants must meet at least the following: (1) a GPA of 2.7 or above in the engineering foundations course sequence, (2) completion of each course in the engineering foundations course sequence with a grade of C (2.0) or above, and (3) completion of EGR 289 in preparation for placement in cooperative engineering education. Transfer students must also complete at least eight semester hours of engineering courses at Grand Valley before they can be admitted to major standing.

Admission is based upon no more than one repeat per required course in the premajor engineering foundations course sequence. Once admitted to major standing in the B.S.E. program, students are expected to devote sufficient time to complete the work assigned in each course. Students are expected to maintain the highest ethical standards at all times. Students may be dismissed from the program for violations of ethical standards or unsatisfactory academic progress.

Students must apply directly to the School of Engineering before the last day of classes of the fall semester of the academic year in which they are seeking admission to major standing. Application forms are available from the School of Engineering office. Notification letters are issued no later than the second week of the winter semester.

Department Administration and Professors

Director: Hentea. Professors: Anyalebechi, Fleischmann, Garrett, Hentea, Jack, Johnson, Larson, Standridge. Associate Professors: Adamczyk, Barakat, Choudhuri, Dunne, Farris, Mohammadzadeh, Rahman, Sozen, Sterian. Assistant Professors: Chaphalkar, Jiao, Joo, Lu, Mokhtar, Ngalamou, Parikh, Pawloski, Plouff, Pung, Rhodes. Laboratory Supervisors: Bero, Grew.

Mission and Values Statements

Mission: Our mission is to prepare students to assume engineering positions in industry with the potential to advance to leadership positions. It is the mission of the faculty to provide a curriculum which is relevant to current engineering practice and strongly applied in nature. The faculty provides an environment in which students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the engineering design challenges of the future with exibility and creativity. Students develop technical competency through classroom/laboratory work and through the supervised on-site work experience provided in the students industry experience.

Our mission is fulfilled by commitment to continual improvement and refinement through critical review. Such review requires both close contact with current engineering practice and a commitment to those elements of a general education program required for a well-balanced education. For this reason faculty involvement with the student industry experience and with consulting practice is strongly encouraged. At the same time close communication with the academic community at large ensures that the students technical education is embedded in a strongly supportive general education program.

Values: Our values reect our educational mission. We are an academic community in a nation for which the intrinsic value of each individual is taken as fundamental. Thus we strive to provide an environment in which each member of our academic community student, staff member, and faculty can reach his or her fullest potential.

Just as we value each individual in our community, we value the environment in which we live. The engineering community strongly inuences the environment through the practice of its profession. For that reason we strive to build into our curriculum an awareness of, and sensitivity to, those areas in which engineering practice affects the environment. Such awareness extends beyond technical knowledge to include ethical responsibility in the practice of our profession.

Web Site: www.gvsu.edu/engineering

Accreditation

Accreditation: The B.S.E. programs are accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET); the electrical, mechanical, and product design and manufacturing engineering emphases in the B.S.E. program have separate programmatic accreditation by ABET.

The Engineering Profession and Career Opportunities

Engineers apply science, mathematics, and professional judgment to solve technical problems in industry and society. They design and develop products, processes, services and systems. Engineers test, produce, operate, maintain, sell, install and manage products and systems. Many work in public health, transportation and environmental protection.

In todays world, engineers are expected to contribute more than technical competence. As professionals, engineers are concerned with the impact of their work on society and the changing values and priorities of society. The current emphasis on science and technology has increased public interest in engineering education as a general preparation for living as well as earning a living. To deal effectively with rapid changes in technology, engineers must have a broad undergraduate education firmly based upon the basic sciences and embedded within a supportive liberal education program. Engineers must have the ability to visualize a problem in its total context.

The need for broadly educated engineering graduates is very high and is expected to grow rapidly during the next decade. Demand varies depending on location, type of local industry, and the economy. West Michigan is one of the largest technical, manufacturing, and industrial regions of the state.

Graduate School Opportunities

The Bachelor of Science in Engineering program prepares students for engineering practice as well as graduate studies. Many of our graduates continue their education on a part time basis while holding full time employment. Some of our graduating seniors enroll in full time graduate programs and have enjoyed success at universities such as George Washington and Notre Dame.

Participating Programs

Cooperative Education
Cooperative engineering education in industry typically begins during the spring/summer semester following admission to major standing in the B.S.E. program. Students then alternate periods of cooperative education with periods of academic study for the next 20 months. The cooperative education cycle provides the student with 1,500 to 2,000 hours of work experience. A typical schedule of cooperative education and academic study is shown below in the sample curriculum for the B.S.E. degree.

Placement of students in cooperative education is made through the Career Services office. Students must enroll in EGR 289 during the fall semester for placement in the following spring/summer semester. Grand Valley will make a strong effort to offer every student admitted to major standing a number of invitations for interviews for cooperative education positions with various potential employers. Students who are not acceptable for employment through the prescribed cooperative education placement process, do not obtain positive evaluations during their cooperative educational experiences, or do not maintain satisfactory progress toward the B.S.E. degree cannot meet the graduation requirements of the program and must withdraw from the B.S.E. program. Such students do have numerous other options to complete a bachelors degree in one of Grand Valleys other programs.

Student Organizations

American Society of Mechanical Engineering (ASME)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc (IEEE)
National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
Society of Automotive Engineer (SAE) Mini Baja Team
Society Manufacturing Engineering (SME)
Society of Women in Engineering (SWE)

Honors Organization

Grand Valley State University hosts the Michigan Lambda Chapter of Tau Beta Pi, the National Engineering Honors Society.

Program Requirements

The following programs are available:


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