Message from the Department Chair

Welcome to the Web site of Arizona State University’s Department of Engineering at the Polytechnic campus. I am pleased to introduce our new engineering program, designed to provide an immersive experience-based education for success in a high technology-oriented world. We create engineers that are sought after by employers, with broad engineering and technical knowledge, and communications, critical thinking, teamwork and business skills.

Several key features make our program unique. We have found that most people learn better when they are engaged in their own learning. Most of our learning takes place in engineering studios, not lecture halls, where we work on increasingly realistic projects every semester. Also, students have the flexibility to build on a broad engineering foundation by selecting two concentration areas of study, and one of the concentrations does not need to be engineering.

You might wonder why we have created an entirely new engineering program. If you have been paying attention to the news, you should know that many traditional engineering jobs are going overseas. We have entered a new global economy with a growing need for innovative, agile engineers who have a broad understanding of engineering and technology, and who can readily apply their knowledge to design solutions to society’s problems. Think for a moment of some of the items that engineers have designed; items such as artificial organs, cell phones, musical instruments, iPods, airplanes, hybrid vehicles, and bridges. Each of these items incorporates many different areas of knowledge, including electrical knowledge, mechanical knowledge, materials and chemical knowledge, software and computer knowledge, and all of them have an impact on their users and the world. In addition, all of these items need to be manufactured and distributed. We provide a learning environment where students have repeated experiences to work on realistic engineering projects that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries.

We are preparing our graduates to be agile, with an appreciation of the global marketplace and a lifelong commitment to continuous learning. We expect that there will be many dramatic technological changes in the working life of our students. Our energy technology will need to change, our national infrastructure is in need of redesign, we will learn to take advantage of our emerging knowledge of building things at the nano or atomic level, and there will continue to be great advances at the intersection of biology and engineering. Many engineering teams now work across the globe on a daily basis and this trend will likely increase. We believe that many future engineers will not only design and innovate, but also start their own companies, work for multiple companies at the same time, or use their engineering background to launch careers in medicine, law, or public service.

I encourage you to contact me if you are a student considering joining our program, a concerned parent, or a company that would like to work with our students.

Dr. Chell Roberts, Chair
Department of Engineering
ASU's Polytechnic campus