Introducing Flexibility in an Engineering Curriculum Through Student Designed Elective Programs

Calls from industry, non-profits and government consistently encourage engineering programs to create a "well-rounded engineer." But what is meant by a well-rounded engineer? And how can university faculty meet these requests within the limitations of existing degree programs and the accreditation requirements of ABET? Two years ago, the Industrial Engineering faculty at Montana State University undertook a major project to revamp and update their curriculum and attempt to answer these questions. The results of the project represented a major curriculum revision, with nearly 30% of the course credits in the curriculum undergoing some level of change. The cornerstone of these updates sought to increase flexibility in the program through introduction of cognate electives. Cognate is defined as of the same or similar nature. In that vein, this new program allows for students to build their own customized concentration using a free-form series of elective courses. The cognate system replaced a traditional set of professional electives focused on engineering topics. The cognate enables students to develop a customized focus area based on their interests that is outside yet complementary to core industrial engineering topics. The electives are structured in a way that provides students a high degree of flexibility to explore other areas of education outside their field and requires them to acquire a certain level of expertise in their chosen cognate area. The change provides a higher level of flexibility than most traditional engineering programs allow. This article examines the creation and implementation of this program and explores how students are using this new-found flexibility.