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Career success in any engineering field is difficult without some advanced course work. "The engineering world is multi-disciplinary," says Mark Horenstein, associate dean for graduate programs in the college of engineering at Boston University (Boston, MA). "The skills that students develop during team projects and advanced study can help them move up to a managerial level."
Minorities and women are underrepresented among advanced degree holders, so it's especially challenging for those groups. And increasing minority and female representation in grad programs is a challenge too.
At Iowa State University (Ames, IA), only 19 percent of U.S. graduate students are female and just 3 percent are underrepresented minorities, says Nancy Knight, director of diversity and graduate student affairs. Asians and Asian Americans, although they have their own challenges, are well-represented among grad students, she notes.
Christopher Jones, assistant dean for graduate studies at MIT (Cambridge, MA), says that study at the BS level creates a wall of knowledge and develops the basic skills to keep the wall standing. But with an advanced degree, an engineer develops the skills to identify holes, add bricks to fill the gaps, and strengthen and enhance the wall.
Help for students
Tuition funding for advanced degrees is available through a variety of sources. Associations such as NSBE, SHPE, the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, and the GEM Consortium offer scholarships and fellowships. And many companies are willing to pay part or all of employees' tuition, as well as give them time off or at least a flexible schedule to attend classes.
Graduate schools recognize that a traditional full-time on-campus degree program doesn't work for everyone, so many are putting programs in place to accommodate students in a variety of situations. At the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), for example, students have the option to begin a masters as undergrads. And at New Mexico State University (Las Cruces, NM), a masters in industrial engineering is offered via distance learning.
Interdisciplinary programs are also becoming more common. At Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), engineering faculty and graduate students collaborate with other departments and research institutes like the School of Sustainability, the Global Institute of Sustainability and the School of Earth and Space Exploration. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, for instance, teamed with the Fulton School of Engineering to jointly administer the School of Materials.
Corinne Lengsfeld teaches ME at the University of Denver
Corinne Lengsfeld got all three of her ME degrees at the University of California-Irvine: a BSME in 1992, an MSME in 1993 and a PhD in 1997. Then she did a two-year post-doc in ChE at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
"In graduate school I worked on liquid rocket engines, and when I finished up I was really sick of them," she says. "I looked around and thought that what was happening in the pharmaceutical and bioengineering industries was pretty cool."
She discovered an overlap between the two fields of study, and her post-doc work allowed her to apply the knowledge she already had to a new application. "I haven't looked back," says Lengsfeld. "Since then most of my research has been in medical devices and pharmaceutical drug delivery systems."
In 1999 Lengsfeld was hired as an assistant professor in ME at the University of Denver (Denver, CO), where she teaches undergraduate ME and graduate bioengineering classes. She was promoted to associate professor in 2005.
Lengsfeld has known all her life that she wanted to be an engineer. As an undergraduate she thought she'd go to work in industry right out of college. Then she realized that "You can't do anything really 'sexy' unless you have a graduate degree." She had planned to stop with a masters, but as she got more deeply immersed in academia she realized that was the route she wanted to take. "As a professor you get to work for somebody while you also run your own little 'company' doing research. It's a unique situation."
She loves her job, but says that it was a long, hard process to become a professor, between the graduate school work and the requirements for tenure and other academic responsibilities. "Once you make it, though, it's very rewarding."
Angelique Diaz: environmental science and engineering at CSM
Angelique Diaz graduated from Colorado School of Mines (Golden, CO) in 1998 with a BS in chemical engineering and petroleum refining, and took a job at ExxonMobil in Baytown, TX. She wanted to get into environmental science and engineering, but didn't have the right background to find a job. So after a few years she returned to Mines to get a graduate degree.
She finished her MS in environmental science and engineering in 2003, and is aiming to finish her PhD in August 2007. Her research involves the study of plutonium's behavior under a variety of environmental conditions.
"My initial five-year plan included an MBA, not an advanced degree in engineering," she says, "but I think I made a good choice."
When she does return to industry she's hoping for a technical job in either consulting or government. The PhD will help her land a more senior position.
As an undergraduate Diaz was involved with both SWE and SHPE. As a graduate student she's been active in those organizations again, but more as an advisor and mentor. Diaz is also involved with community outreach programs to encourage young women and minorities to consider engineering.
"Spending all my time in the lab is not my thing," she says. "I do better in school when I have other things on my plate."
Drexel's Kate Allen studies biomechanical engineering
Kate Allen completed a five-year BSME with a minor in pre-med from Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) in 2004. She is now midway through a PhD program in biomechanical engineering. Her research focuses on the mechanical properties of nerve cells.
During her undergraduate years she did co-ops in both research and manufacturing. She liked the research-related ones best, and noticed that all the employees involved had advanced degrees. She realized then that if she wanted to follow a research path, she would have to pursue graduate school.
Allen was steered toward Drexel's graduate program by the dean of the College of Engineering, Selcuk Guceri. "I met him at the College of Engineering's senior design competition. He saw my group's work, and asked me what I was doing after graduation. At that point I was looking for a job, but I still wasn't sure if I wanted to go down the traditional mechanical engineering path," she says. "He told me about the different options and research projects available at Drexel. Talking with him convinced me to continue my education in engineering, and to do it at Drexel.
"When I started college I thought I'd be treating patients, but now I feel that I'll be able to make more of a contribution to society by applying new engineering technologies to medical applications."
The faculty at Drexel has been supportive, and she has both role models and mentors like her advisor, Bradley Layton. "The head of the biomedical engineering department, Banu Onaral, is a woman, and I consider her a role model," she says. "Even though men are in the majority in ME, there are a number of women here. I don't feel like I'm in the minority."
Lewis Hill: Iowa State PhD graduate
For Lewis Hill music and computer engineering are a natural combination. As an undergraduate in computer engineering at Iowa State University (ISU, Ames, IA), he was a musician at a local church, a member of the school's drum line club and an electronic music hobbyist.
As an undergrad Hill worked at the ISU virtual reality applications center. He enjoyed visualization research so much that after completing his BS in 1998, he continued straight through to an MS in computer engineering in 2000. After graduation he relocated to San Diego, CA, where he worked first in mobile device applications and later in bioinformatics visualization.
In California he played percussion in two different bands, and came up with the concept for a computer graphics show to enhance one band's performances. "The band wanted to visually communicate the concepts and emotions that inspired the vocals and music."
He also learned about synesthesia, a cognitive phenomenon that produces an experience of colored mental images and/or textural sensations in response to sound or other physical stimuli. Hill knew that he had both text and sound-based synesthesia, but hadn't known about the academic research on the condition. He wondered if synesthesia-based graphics could provide more intuitive transformations of sound into visual information sets, and decided that he wanted to research the question.
Hill returned to ISU in 2003 and enrolled in the human computer interaction doctoral program as a doctoral fellow of the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP). He received his PhD in 2006. His dissertation linked his interests in music, computer visualization and human perception, and received an ISU research excellence award.
In March 2007 he took a software engineering position in the atrial fibrillation division of St. Jude Medical (Minneapolis, MN), a cardiovascular medical technology company. He's a software/visualization engineer for the company's EnSite NavX navigation and visualization device, which is used in a variety of procedures to produce 3-D computer models of patients' cardiac chambers.
María Torres: a dual major in engineering and chemistry
María Torres graduated from the University of Puerto Rico in 2003 with a BS in chemistry and ChE, and no plans for grad school. "It was hard to find a good job, though," she says. "So I decided to continue my education to broaden my horizons."
She took advantage of Project 1000 to help her find the right university. Project 1000, a national government-funded program administered by Arizona State University, assists minority students in navigating, and paying for, the graduate school application process.
Through Project 1000, Torres received a recruiting e-mail from Nancy Knight, director of diversity and graduate student affairs at Iowa State University (ISU, Ames, IA). Torres visited Ames and the ChE department soon afterward, and got a lot of encouragement from faculty and other grad students. Despite the cultural and language barriers and the prospect of being away from her family, she felt the school and town would be a good fit.
Iowa State offered her an NSF-AGEP scholarship for minority students, which has funded her doctoral work in ChE. She has also been awarded the Ruth L. Kirschstein Fellowship for minority students by the National Institutes of Health. Torres expects to finish her degree in 2007.
She started out in chemistry, because she wanted to study medicine. "I was interested in doing research where I could look for solutions to health-related problems," she explains. But the university's strength was in engineering, and since she enjoys math and science, she decided to combine the fields. She is presently using polymers to develop a single-dose vaccine to prevent cancer. "I am still living my dream of working to cure illness," she says.
Torres' research keeps her busy, but she does find time to promote ISU's grad programs to other Puerto Rican students. She has traveled back to her home several times to talk about her program and the university. "We're really a minority here," she says. "When I came there were no other Puerto Ricans in the department and nobody spoke Spanish. Now we have five or six.
"Being a minority student at a grad level is a privilege," she says. "It is an invaluable opportunity to demonstrate our potential and open doors for future generations."
Renee Rodgers: a new PhD program at Tuskegee
Renee Rodgers is a pioneer. She is one of the first participants in the new materials science and engineering PhD program at Tuskegee University (Tuskegee, AL). She is on track to receive her degree in May 2007, and is already putting her new knowledge to work in the materials and process engineering group of Raytheon Missile Systems (Tucson, AZ).
Rodgers got a 1995 BS from Tuskegee, then attended graduate school at Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) for a year. But she soon realized she was tired of school, and decided to take a break. She went to work for Cessna Aircraft Company (Wichita, KS) for two years.
"Then I got tired of working and wanted to go back to college," she says. "I always wanted to go to graduate school. A bachelors degree isn't enough any more. Once I was out there working, I realized that to get a job with better opportunities I'd need a graduate degree." She went back to Tuskegee in the fall of 1998, attracted by the new program.
As an undergraduate Rodgers was an active member of NSBE, and helped establish an alumni chapter of NSBE in Wichita. When she returned for graduate school she was active for a year or two, but then her studies took over all her time.
She has developed close bonds with her fellow graduate students. They support each other, and open their doors to undergraduate students who are curious about graduate school. "You miss out on a lot if you don't build a relationship with the other students in your department," she says.
Rodgers started her job at Raytheon Missile Systems in December 2004. For the last two years she's been traveling from Tucson to Alabama and Florida to finish her degree requirements.
Leslie Popp: a University of Wyoming doctoral student
Leslie Popp got her BSEE with an option in bioengineering from the University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY) in 2001, and took a job working on DoD contracts at Harris Corp (Melbourne, FL). "I enjoyed the work, but I realized I didn't really want a job in a government environment," she says.
She also wanted to change the focus of her career. "I was working in the RF field, but I wanted to switch to signal processing and biomedical applications. Finding a job in that area was difficult without any work experience."
Returning to school full time seemed like a better option, so she went back to the University of Wyoming and finished the requirements for her MSEE in 2006. Now she's continuing with her doctoral studies.
When she first entered graduate school Popp expected a very competitive atmosphere. She quickly found it was just the opposite. "We help each other out. I never feel like I'm competing with my peers."
Popp is one of only four or five women in her department, but that doesn't bother her. As a woman EE she is used to being in the minority in the classroom and workplace. "Sometimes it gets lonely, but I have male friends now and I'm comfortable with them."
Popp is glad she took the time to work in industry before entering graduate school. The break helped improve her attitude toward education as well. "Now I treat it more like a job."
Moogega Cooper: BS in physics to a PhD in ME
The Tuskegee Airmen are an inspiration for Moogega Cooper. In the 1996 TV movie The Tuskegee Airmen, the pilots make an emergency landing in a sharecropper's field, and the farmers are shocked to see African American men piloting planes. "People didn't think such a thing was possible. It was another barrier broken down," says Cooper.
As a PhD student in ME at Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA), Cooper is both breaking barriers and serving as a role model. "It's important for young women and minorities to see that getting a graduate degree in engineering is possible. I want them to identify with somebody."
Cooper got her 2006 BS in physics from Hampton University (Hampton, VA), and went straight to Drexel's PhD program. She switched from physics to ME, because "I wanted to develop a marketable product while still doing some physics." A PhD has been her goal since she was very young.
She'd like to be an astronaut or at least work for NASA someday. Drexel has close ties with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. "I'm involved with a plasma engineering project to sterilize space craft. It's funded by NASA's planetary protection department," she says. "When we send probes to Mars we want to make sure that they don't bring any extraterrestrial bacteria back with them. I'm trying to obliterate different types of bacteria using plasma."
ASU's Sean Williams studies computer science
Sean Williams, PhD candidate in CS at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ), wants to be an inspiration to other students. Only a handful of African Americans graduate with a PhD in CS each year, and he wants to see that statistic improve.
He aims to join a college faculty, but for now he's involved with a number of community activities that encourage other young people to consider careers in engineering and the other hard sciences. He helps recruit minority students to Arizona State, and has been a member of NSBE for many years.
"It's all about getting a voice out there to say anyone can overcome obstacles," he says. "I want to be an inspiration, and show others that this can be done."
Williams received his BSEE from Tennessee State University (Nashville, TN) in 2001 and a masters in computer science from Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) in 2003. He went to work in industry as a software engineer for two years, and then decided to return to school. "I have an interest in research. If I want to take that path I need a PhD."
Lauren Renfro: BS to MS
In 2006 Lauren Renfro finished the last requirements for her BS in computer engineering at the University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS), and simultaneously began her first classes toward an MS in the field. She's studying image processing.
The MS fits into both her personal and professional plans. After graduation, probably in 2008, she wants to stay in Kansas, near her family. She believes an MS will help her find a good job in a relatively small geographic area.
Renfro has wanted to be an engineer for years. "Growing up, I was a strong student in math and science. I was the kid who wanted to put things together," she says. "Plus, computers are cool. I had a friend who had her own computer, and we'd go to her house and pretend to program. We were pretty nerdy."
Renfro knew she wanted to get a graduate degree, but was afraid that "If I left after getting just a BS, life would get in the way." The program at the University of Kansas has proven to be a cost-effective way for her to get an advanced degree without breaking her stride.
In addition to pursuing her MS, Renfro has a part-time job as the School of Engineering's coordinator of women in engineering programs. She plans engineering camps for high-school girls and a recruiting dinner for students and prospective employers. She enjoys the interaction with other women engineering students, and the message it sends to the aspiring engineers. "I'm glad I can show them they aren't alone in the department."
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