An Interdisciplinary Graduate Program At Wvutech

This paper describes the development and implementation of a graduate program in Control Systems Engineering at the Leonard C. Nelson College of Engineering in West Virginia University Institute of Technology (WVUTech). This unique interdisciplinary program is directed towards professional engineering practice and includes internships for those who can be placed with industries in the Upper Kanawha Valley region. With the current enrollment of 21 students, this graduate program is still considered to be small compared to the much larger graduate programs at other institutions across the country. But what makes this unique is the fact that the program has produced excellent graduates who are self-starters and good problem solvers and they all seem to enter the workforce with a penchant for, rather than a fear of, interdisciplinary activities.