This project will to develop an Engineering Studies Program at Sweet Briar College, only the second such program in the nation at a liberal arts institution for women. The new four-year, on campus program is an expansion of SBC's current engineering option offered under the auspices of the Physics Department through collaborative five-year programs with four partner universities. The new Engineering Studies Program will give students the opportunity to learn about engineering in a variety of ways and levels. The core of the proposed project is to establish a two-track approach leading to a B.S. degree in Engineering Science (ES) or a B.A. in Integrated Engineering and Management (IEM). The two majors share an early curriculum before a student must choose between the ES and IEM options. This two-track approach will help encourage women to explore engineering knowing that they can choose either a liberal arts- or science-based degree.
Another novel aspect of the program is that both introductory engineering courses that satisfy general education requirements and an Engineering Studies minor will be offered to all students. Students combining the minor in engineering with a major in the sciences will increase their employment opportunities in technical fields and facilitate their acceptance into graduate engineering programs. Students combining the minor in engineering with a major in arts, humanities or social sciences will gain a substantially greater degree of "technical literacy" than is traditionally available to women majoring in these fields.
The Intellectual Merits of the proposal are as follows: 1. The program is structured to give all SBC students the opportunity to learn about engineering. 2. The two-track engineering major approach will encourage more women to pursue engineering by allowing them the flexibility to choose an Engineering Science or a liberal arts-based Integrated Engineering and Management degree. 3. SBC will continue to offer students a dual-degree option in an engineering specialty with partner universities. The new program will facilitate the second degree to be at the master's level. 4. A novel use of the engineering curriculum will be the availability of a subset of engineering courses to all SBC students through general education courses, and the creation of an Engineering Science minor a. To further encourage women to experiment with engineering b. To facilitate the acceptance of SBC science graduates into graduate engineering programs c. To encourage women in the arts, humanities and social sciences to obtain a level of technical education. 5. The new Engineering Studies Program is based on state-of-the-art pedagogical approaches and models, resulting in a cutting-edge program built on a culture of cross-disciplinary course integration and faculty involvement which utilizes engineering design as a context for learning throughout the curriculum. The new engineering program will have an environmental component and a research project requirement.
