Growth of Project Track & Online MS
Purdue ECE has been developing ways for students to earn an MSECE in nontraditional ways. The online MSECE and the Project-Track Masters are two programs that do just that.
Online Track Master’s
The online affordable MSECE ‘degree-at-scale’ was launched in January 2020. It offers the same degree with the same courses and the same instructors as the on-campus one but at a fraction of the price. Each plan of study can be customized to include a number of unique one-credit-hour courses that help students gain the desired specialization within their chosen technical field and get the appropriate breadth in others. The online MSECE tops the U.S. News & World Report rankings of the Best Online Programs for electrical engineering.
“Student success is our primary focus,” said Dimitrios Peroulis, Purdue’s Michael and Katherine Birck Head and Reilly Professor, Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Besides our dedicated faculty members, our online students can engage with a variety of advisors, success coaches and, of course, their on-campus and online peers. We will keep innovating in this space to provide additional learning opportunities for our growing Purdue Engineering online community.”
The program launched in Spring 2020 with a few dozen students. That number has grown to nearly 400.
Project Track Master’s
The Project-Track Master’s Degree in Computer and Electrical Engineering was launched in Fall 2019. The program provides students the opportunity to develop technical depth through a year-long project that has the same scope and ambition as a nine-credit MS thesis. Designed with input from the Purdue ECE industry advisory board, the project-track allows students to develop professional skills to help accelerate their career advancement in industry or prepare them for success in Ph.D. studies.
A special highlight of the program is an intensive, year-long design Ideas to Innovation course sequence in which students explore real-world problems and develop state-of-the-art solutions. Using ideation processes adapted from leading tech companies, students identify problems addressing broad societal issues or emerging technology challenges and propose products which can solve these problems. The design projects are aimed at developing proof-of-concept prototypes which “de-risk” the product concepts. The courses provide opportunities for students to develop writing, presentation and entrepreneurial skills during definition of their project concepts as well as to benefit from perspectives of industrial experts.
“Integrating a realistic design experience with the development of success skills will help students in this new program quickly develop into tomorrow’s leaders in technology innovation,” said Vijay Raghunathan, Associate Head of Graduate and Professional Programs and professor of ECE.
The initial prototype of the Project-Track program with two students began in Fall 2019. Cohorts of 20-25 students started in 2020 and 2021. More than 50 are expected to be enrolled in the upcoming semester.