New Doctor of Engineering Degree

This fall, Old Dominion Univer-sity started offering Doctor of Engineering program. It is geared toward practicing engineers who want to increase their knowledge and become leaders and managers in their field.

The Doctor of Engineering was approved in March by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. The areas of concentra-tion will be aerospace engineer-ing, civil and environmental engi-neering, engineering management,
systems engineering, mechanical engineering, and modeling and simulation.

"This program is for working professionals," said Dr. Osman Akan, Associate Dean. "This is meant to augment an engineer's career." ODU already has a doctor of philosophy in engineering de-gree which grants approximately 25 graduates per year. Dr. Oktay Baysal, the engineering dean, said an engineering Ph.D. is designed "for educators and researchers; the
doctorate is for practitioners." De-spite this, "70 percent of those with engineering Ph.D.s are employed outside of academics and working in the industry."

The Doctorate in Engineering is an "alternative path" to the Ph.D., and it will give engineers "management and leadership skills to move up," Baysal said. The Program's core will include project management, ethics, leadership and financial engineering.