Dean's Message

Welcome to the Batten College of Engineering and Technology at Old Dominion University.

At the Batten College, students are creating, competing and participating in cutting-edge research and design projects, all while earning a great engineering education and having a fulfilling college experience.

Our students work on racecars, build autonomous vehicles, devise life-saving biomedical devices, plan coastal resilience strategies, research human-robot interaction, test drones in wind tunnels, build small satellites to be launched into space and use machine learning to solve real-world problems.

Our location, at the crossroads of maritime, military and industrial hubs in metropolitan Norfolk, Virginia, provides unique opportunities for student and faculty engagement with organizations such as NASA Langley Research Center, Newport News Shipbuilding, Port of Virginia, STIHL Inc. and the U.S. Navy.

More than half of our graduates remain in the greater Hampton Roads area and almost one third remain in the Commonwealth of Virginia, making Batten College a mainstay of the region’s workforce.

Our diverse student body includes a 40% minority population and 15% military/veteran student population – the highest in Virginia. Over 44% of our freshmen are first-generation students.

I invite you to learn more about our undergraduate and graduate programs, either in person by attending our monthly First Friday tours or online.

Dr. Kenneth Fridley

Dean, Batten College of Engineering & Technology