Saluting our Schools

Prairie View A&M students get work and research experience

Prairie View offers a private school education at a state school rate. Offerings cover all areas that technology may require

Prairie View A&M University (Prairie View, TX) is turning out top-flight engineers and computer scientists across a broad array of disciplines.

The school is an historically black university. It provides research and work opportunities for students through partnerships with cutting edge organizations. Raytheon, Boeing, Shell, Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Lockheed-Martin, NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments and Dow Chemical are among its partners.

“If I had a dollar for every company that hired one of our graduates, I’d be doing well,”
says Dr Kendall T. Harris, PE, dean at the Roy G. Perry College of Engineering.

Prairie View is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and is a member of the Texas A&M University system. The engineering college was founded in 1946, but the graduate programs are relatively new, Harris says.

Robust technology offerings
The college has three areas of focus: engineering, computer science and engineering technology. Engineering departments include chemical, civil and environmental, electrical and computer and mechanical engineering. For undergrads, each offers a BS degree. The CS department also offers a BS. The department of engineering technology offers BS degrees in computer engineering technology and electrical engineering technology.

On the graduate level, the college offers a general masters of engineering degree with concentrations in chemical, civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering. The CS department offers MS degrees in both CS and CIS. The electrical and computer engineering department offers an MS and PhD in EE. The College of Business offers an MS in MIS.

“Our offerings are robust enough to cover all areas of technology that industry requires,”
says Harris.

In the fall of 2009 the school kicked off a new five-year BS/MS program for all engineering, computer science and technology areas. “The students seem excited about this,” says Harris.

The school has seen a modest increase in the number of grad students over the last several years. “We’re seeing more individuals who’ve decided to come back to advance their technology base after layoffs,” he adds.

Harris encourages students to go as far up the degree ladder as they can. Grad school is totally different from undergrad, he notes. Before enrolling, it’s a good idea to form a relationship with a grad advisor. “It’s the advisor’s job to help get them there,” he says. “Graduate work is really about the relationship, not just going to class.”

A private school education
About 1,000 of the 8,400 students attending Prairie View are in the college of engineering. Of those, about 10 percent are grad students.

“Our faculty-to-student ratio is eighteen to one,” Harris notes. “You’re getting a private school education at a state school rate. If you miss a class, someone will notice!”

About 85 percent of the school’s graduates are gainfully employed. Of those, some 15 percent are simultaneously going to grad school. “Our BS grads are accepted at top institutions across the country, from Stanford to Purdue to Penn State,” Harris says.

Prairie View has a university placement center to help students connect with employers. Recruiters can interview students at the center and conduct seminar workshops on their companies’ cultures. A central repository for information on jobs will be launched this fall
in the college’s new Engineering Success Center.

Internships, co-ops and research opportunities
Some 40 percent of the college’s undergrads participate in scholarly research, an experience usually reserved for grad students. “It’s a complement to their education,” says Harris. “When they enter industry, they are not the fresh green graduates that never did anything but study.”

On top of that, about two-thirds of all engineering undergrads participate in internships and/or co-ops. One unique program, sponsored by Lockheed Martin, enables students to work on campus on real-world Lockheed projects during the school year, under the supervision of two company engineers.

A majority of students intern in Texas, but some travel to other parts of the country and to places as far away as South America or Africa. In fact, Prairie View is now working on a study-abroad program, says Dr Felecia Nave, associate professor of ChE. She works with graduate and undergraduate students and runs the school’s summer outreach programs.

Diverse faculty, diverse students
As an HBCU, Prairie View undergrads are 88 percent African American, but at the graduate level, 72 percent are international, Harris says. “We’re expecting those grad numbers to level off once the five-year BS/MS program takes off.”

Of the remaining undergrads, 5 percent are Hispanic, 5 percent are white, and 2 percent are international. About a quarter of the engineering students are female and about twenty percent of the incoming classes are transfer students.

There are fifty-four permanent faculty members, 30 percent of whom are African American,
5 percent white, and 65 percent international. Eleven percent are women, and there is at least one female faculty member in each engineering discipline except mechanical, Nave says.

Women professors not only serve as role models, they help keep female students in engineering, computer science and technology, says Nave.

Professional and diversity organizations
Students can also tap the benefits of professional societies on campus: the ASME, the SPE, the Society for Biological Engineers and Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the United States.

“NSBE has a long-standing presence not only with the college but with other area schools,” Nave says. “They sponsor several outreach programs and activities.” SWE has also been on campus for a number of years. A SHPE chapter is forming. Students in the various society chapters are working to create a council of organizations. “They’ll be able to maximize the impact of their programs and increase their networking power,” Nave says.

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