USF 2006-2007 Undergraduate Catalog - Pages 145-147
The mission of the USF College of Engineering is to continuously aspire to excellence in teaching, research and public service. The College values academic excellence, professionalism, ethics and cultural diversity among its students, staff and faculty. The College is committed to addressing the needs of its constituencies and gives careful consideration to the urban and suburban populations in our service area.
At the undergraduate level the College is committed to provide students with a strong, broad-based, fundamental engineering education as preparation for careers in industry in a global environment, and government, or as preparation for advanced studies in professional schools of engineering, science, law, business and medicine.
At the graduate level students work in close collaboration with faculty, pursuing advanced topics within their disciplines, which will result in advancements in their fields and society at large.
Utilizing the expertise of its individual and collective faculty, the College is dedicated to the development of new fundamental knowledge and processes or procedures, which will benefit all humanity. The College promotes multi-disciplinary approaches, commitment to life-long learning and awareness of societal issues, which are requisite for meeting technological challenges.
The College provides technical assistance and technology transfer to the region, state and nation. In all facets of teaching, research and service, the College emphasizes close liaisons with industry and government to provide students and faculty with the skills and perspectives needed to ensure effective technological leadership.
The College of Engineering offers undergraduate and graduate programs to prepare students for a broad spectrum of professional careers in engineering. Laboratory experience as well as real-world participation in technological problem solving is a key aspect of a professional engineer’s college education. The College of Engineering, in implementing this need, augments its own modern laboratory and research facilities in close collaboration with the professional societies and the many industries in the metropolitan Tampa Bay area. The College of Engineering offers undergraduate degrees in Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems, Electrical Engineering, General Engineering, Industrial Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. In addition, the College offers a minor in Biomedical Engineering and several certificate programs offering additional specialization expertise in a related or cross disciplinary area.
The engineering programs of the College have been developed with an emphasis on three broad aspects of engineering activity: design, research, and the operation of complex technological systems. Students who are interested in advanced design or research should pursue the 5-Year Program leading to a Master of Science degree in a designated Engineering discipline. The Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET) has accredited the Engineering programs of the College (Chemical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering). The Bachelor of Science program in Computer Science is accredited by the Computing Accreditation Commission (CAC) of ABET.
The supervision of the academic programs for the College is the function of the administrative departments together with several coordinators. Each department is responsible for specific professional programs, faculty, laboratories, and student advising.
The Departments and Programs section that follows contains descriptions of the engineering degrees offered by the College. The “Four Year Programs” section includes courses students need to take, beginning with the freshman year, to earn the Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree.
Students interested in particular programs offered by the College of Engineering should direct their inquiries to the College of Engineering Office of Student Services (see Advising section below). Information is also available on the College’s website: http://www.eng.usf.edu/.
The College of Engineering recognizes that modern engineering solutions draw on knowledge of several branches of engineering. It also recognizes that future technological and societal developments will lead to shifting of the relative emphasis on various branches of engineering, triggered by new needs or a reassessment of national goals. For this reason the College’s programs include a strong engineering foundation portion, designed to equip the prospective engineer with a broad base of fundamental technical knowledge. To this foundation is added the student’s specialization of sufficient depth to prepare him/her to embark successfully on a professional career.
The Bachelor of Science degrees offered in the various engineering disciplines provide the student a broad education with sufficient technical background to contribute effectively in many phases of engineering not requiring the depth of knowledge needed for advanced design or research. The baccalaureate degree is considered the minimum educational credential for participating in the engineering profession and is the first professional degree. Students interested in design and research are strongly encouraged to pursue advanced work beyond the baccalaureate either at this or other institutions. It is evident that large segments of today’s engineering professionals are involved in some form of post baccalaureate study. Engineers are earning advanced degrees to obtain the information and training necessary to meet effectively tomorrow’s technological challenges. All are faced with the continuing problem of refurbishing and updating their information skills and most are obtaining advanced information by means of formal graduate study, seminars, special institutes and other such systems designed for this purpose. Life-long learning is a fact in engineering practice, and graduates must be aware and committed to it.
The Bachelor of Science degree program in a designated engineering discipline and the Master of Science degree in the same discipline may be pursued simultaneously in a program called the Five-Year Program.
Students who have attained senior status, and are in good academic standing in an ABET accredited Engineering Program, are eligible to register for examinations leading to licensure as Professional Engineers. The first examination, called the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) Exam, is offered by the Florida Board of Professional Engineers and is usually taken the semester prior to graduation. In addition to the knowledge acquired through the engineering curriculum, many students take advantage of review courses offered by the Engineering Student College Council and the College of Engineering’s distance education program, APEX, to prepare for the Fundamentals of Engineering Examination. Registering for the FE exam during the senior year is strongly encouraged for students graduating with an engineering degree.
Students planning to attend USF’s College of Engineering should familiarize themselves thoroughly with the College’s admissions standards and requirements for their prospective program, which are more stringent than the University’s minimum entrance requirements.
The high school student anticipating a career in engineering should elect the strongest academic program that is available while in high school, including four years each of English, mathematics and science (preferably including Chemistry, Physics, and Biology), as well as full programs in the social sciences and humanities.
Prospective students considering engineering at the University of South Florida who lack certain preparation in high school must elect to follow a program to overcome their deficiencies. Alternatives for these students, classified as “Pre-Engineering majors” might include preparatory coursework at the University of South Florida or community colleges that offer a wide range of preliminary coursework.
Junior/community college students planning to transfer to the University of South Florida’s engineering program from a State of Florida operated college or university should follow a pre-engineering program leading to an A.A. degree. All transfer students should complete as much of the mathematics and science coursework as is available to them. In general, engineering courses taken for military training, at the lower level, or as part of an A.S. or technology degree are not transferable to the engineering programs. Transfer students should be aware that the College expects them to meet departmental admission requirements just as it expects its own students to meet these requirements. Junior/community college students intending to pursue an engineering program at USF should contact the advisor at their institution and request a course equivalency list.
The College of Engineering can assist students who are planning to obtain an Engineering degree from the University of South Florida and who have started their studies elsewhere in formulating a sound total program. Interested students should contact the College’s Office of Student Services (813/974-2684) furnishing sufficient details to permit meaningful response.
The College provides access to centralized computing facilities to undergraduate and graduate students. Most engineering departments also provide students with local facilities. The University is an Internet2 site and links are available to directly connect to all major supercomputing centers in the country.
The College provides enterprise level servers for computing, mail, file, web and database services for students and faculty. The College operates several computer open-access labs for student use. These labs are equipped with a large number of modern PCs and Unix workstations. All lab computers have all of the necessary software required for coursework as well as other standard productivity software. The College also supports a state-of-the-art multimedia lab with document scanners and CD-ROM burner.
Laboratory computers provide the software required for coursework and research. Standard programming languages such as FORTRAN, Basic, Pascal, C, C++ and Java are provided on these machines. General-purpose software such as MS Office, MS visual studio and specialized engineering software including mathematical packages (MathCad, Matlab, Maple, Macsyma, TK Solver), statistical package (SAS), discipline specific application packages such as Abaqus, Ansys, ARENA, Aspen, Cadence and Labview are provided on Unix and Windows platforms on the network and in the labs. Several database management system software packages such as Oracle, MySQL, MSSQL and MS Access are available for classwork. Multi-media software packages such as MS FrontPage, Adobe Acrobat, Illustrator, Photoshop, Omni Page Pro, Paint Shop Pro, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Flash are available in the multi-media lab. The university has also entered an agreement with Microsoft Corporation for upgrade of standard office application, development tools and desktop operating systems.
The college-wide Ethernet network is connected to the USF campus-wide Gigabit Ethernet backbone. Within the College connections are provided to laboratories via 100 Mbps Ethernet. The university’s Internet2 connection links it to more than 150 major universities and research institutions in the nation. Dial-in access is available to students from a large USF modem bank as well as through broadband connection.
It is strongly recommended that engineering students obtain a laptop (suggested) or desktop computer prior to the semester in which specialization courses commence. The recommended computer configuration for engineering applications is indicated on the College web page http://www2.eng.usf.edu/. For further details, contact the Associate Dean of Engineering or the Director of Engineering Computing in the College.
A wide variety of industries and government agencies have established cooperative programs for engineering students to provide them the opportunity to become familiar with the practical aspects of industrial operations and engineering careers. Students in the Career Resource Center’s Cooperative Education (Co-op) program may alternate periods of paid employment in their major field with like periods of study, or may elect to participate in part-time employment while attending classes every semester. Students following the Co-op program usually encounter no problems in scheduling their program, since required Social Science and Humanities, Mathematics and Science, and Engineering Common courses are offered every semester. Students normally apply for participation in this program during their sophomore year and pursue actual Co-op employment during their sophomore and junior years. The senior year is generally pursued on a full-time study basis, since many specialization courses are not offered every semester. The students receive a Cooperative Education Certificate upon successful completion of a minimum of two work assignments.
Engineering students participating in the University Honors Program are able to complete their Engineering Bachelors degree in four years. Many enter the 5 Year program in the fourth year to pursue the combined Bachelors and Masters programs in Engineering. Students who qualify for the Honors Program at USF should contact the Honors College or Engineering Student Services to learn about the benefits of this prestigious program.
The academic and technological knowledge an engineering degree provides is a distinct advantage to individuals interested in a military appointment or career. This is especially true for those participating in one of the ROTC programs at USF. The Engineering degree requirements, combined with ROTC requirements, may require five years to complete.
Students who, at the beginning of their senior year, are clearly interested in graduate study are invited to pursue a Five-Year Program of study leading simultaneously to the Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Engineering. The five-year program includes a two-year research program extending through the fourth and fifth year.
Please send questions or comments to:
Karen M. Hall - webcat@ugs.usf.edu
Effective Date: Semester I, 2006
http://www.ugs.usf.edu/catalogs/0607/enggen.htm