Introducing an Engineering Studies Concentration in a Liberal Arts Physics Program

The new Engineering Studies Concentration program at St. Olaf is one model for how liberal arts schools can support their STEM students who wish to pursue Engineering after graduation, either in graduate school or in technical industry roles. The need for this program became evident after a Physics department self study and external review that identified that students were eager for more applied physics opportunities in the curriculum. Our Engineering Studies Concentration grew out of our Physics department, but now serves students across STEM disciplines and continues to grow in size, with a current average of ~18 students in each class year. The curriculum is designed to cover prerequisite coursework for enrollment in a dual degree program or in a graduate degree program in engineering, but it also offers electives that allow students to explore their interests in various engineering fields. Introductory level and upper level design courses expose students to hands-on applications of the engineering design process. In particular, the entry level design course was developed to attract a diverse array of students into the engineering program by offering an opportunity to see how their technical skills can be directly applied to solve problems that interest them. The Engineering Studies program is supported in part (one course and some course elements) by a National Science Foundation grant. In this presentation, I will share how Engineering Studies was created in response to our Physics program assessment process, the development of the curriculum, current successes, areas for growth, and future directions of the program.