Interdisciplinary Engineering: Enabling student dreams, broadening participation in engineering, and increasing student retention

This paper presents the status of the Interdisciplinary Engineering (IDE) degree program at Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), formerly the University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). The IDE degree was founded in 2005 at UMR to meet the emerging need to provide considerable flexibility to students allowing them to construct programs of study in areas of interest while maintaining a solid and rigorous foundation in mechanics, thermal science, electrical networks and linear systems. Students are able to pursue studying the latest technological fields through a collection of ldquotracksrdquo enabled by the flexibility of the curriculum. This modern degree program houses energetic motivated students interested in a variety of disciplines from product design and amusement park fundamentals to industrial automation and control. The first students graduated the IDE program in December 2007. This facilitated the evaluation of IDEpsilas current status, preparation of its future plans, and sharing these findings with other universities interested in increasing student retention and broadening their demographic of engineering students. This paper presents statistics detailing the students involved in the IDE program, their educational interests inside the program (i.e. track selection), IDEpsilas budding reputation with potential students as well as its recognition in corporate America and its plans to broaden the popularity of the program. Lessons learned from the curriculum development and implementation will be discussed.