Industry-Driven Power Engineering Curriculum Development in Electrical and Computer Engineering Technology Program

The power engineering industry has been experiencing a demonstrated shortage of skilled, well-trained, and educated power engineering technologists and technicians to fill positions in the electric power industry. The root cause of this problem is two-fold. First, academic programs in power engineering have not been educating and graduating enough students in power engineering curriculum to address this shortage. Clearly, more needs to be done to encourage additional capacity within programs and inspire more and more diverse students to explore this career path. Second, nearly 75% of current power engineers and technologists are at or near the retirement age and will retire in the next 10 years. As a result, without coordinated and effective efforts, this demonstrated worker shortage will only get worse in the coming years. Industry and academia need to work together to address this problem. The initiative described in this paper will re-shape, expand, and enhance the current power engineering focus area in electrical engineering technology program. New courses in power electronics, power transmission and distribution, and renewable energy will be developed providing electrical engineering technology students the opportunity to learn concepts and hands-on skills and will address the present and future needs of the power energy industry. One key factor of the proposed new courses will be to revamp the curriculum to meet the expectations of power industry by supplying qualified technicians and technologists who have extensive hands-on experience. The cross-disciplinary electric power system training program presented in this paper is very versatile. It is structured in a way to accommodate the needs of enrolled in the Michigan Technological University students, employees of industry looking to improve their knowledge in power areas, as well as students from another universities and colleges pursuing power education. Concept of virtual laboratory is also introduced here and provides addition flexibility in the class's offering strategies. Due to the rapid changes in the technological world, faculty involved in teaching the proposed courses must be informed of advances in technology currently used in the industry. On the other hand, industry wants to have qualified and well-educated employees who are ready to implement their knowledge on day one of their employment. As a result, the initiative of power engineering curriculum development described in this paper is industry-driven.