IDES/MDE History
When Purdue's Department of Engineering Education was recognized as a School in 2004, it was initially structured to serve as an umbrella for the department's pioneering PhD in Engineering Education program, the newly launched First-Year Engineering program (formerly Freshman Engineering), and a program for undergraduate students who sought alternative engineering pathways.
At that time, Purdue's alternative undergraduate degree to traditional engineering disciplines—Interdisciplinary Engineering (IDE)—had formally existed since 1969 under the Division of Interdisciplinary Engineering Studies and conferred a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) degree. It had been formed, according to its founder Dick Grace, “in response to student faculty, and industrial needs for engineers more broadly educated than ever before." Throughout the years, the program attracted students who wanted to forge their own path and pair engineering with other disciplines such as:
- science (bioengineering, nuclear engineering, geological engineering, solar engineering);
- business (engineering management, public policy engineering, production engineering, engineering sales and marketing);
- design (architectural engineering); or
- an emerging technology or interest (computer systems engineering, solar engineering, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, ocean engineering).
IDE students were free to create their own interdisciplinary plan of study under the direction of the advising office. Since its inception, IDE has spun off many paths of study that were formalized with the creation of schools at Purdue (e.g. the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering; the School of Nuclear Engineering; and the School of Sustainability Engineering and Environmental Engineering); Computer Engineering was incorporated into the School of Electrical Engineering, now the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering; and additional programs/degrees were created including Biological Engineering and Motorsports Engineering.
With the creation of the School of Engineering Education, the IDE program was re-envisioned by then director Phil Wankat and split into two undergraduate offerings: 1) Interdisciplinary Engineering Studies (IDES) and 2) Multidisciplinary Engineering (MDE). From 2004-2005, the MDE pathway was developed to serve students who profess a clear interest in the profession of engineering and, perhaps, an interest in becoming a registered professional engineer. The IDES pathway was reserved for students who want an engineering education background but aspire to take that background into professional school (e.g. pre-med or pre-law) or who may not desire to practice engineering, but value the engineering foundation of their education.
One year after MDE produced its first graduate in 2006, Purdue sought and was granted accreditation of the MDE program by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET in 2007. This distinction was an important step for the program, as students who desire to become professional engineers must graduate from an accredited program to work as an engineer in most states in the U.S.
Today, the School of Engineering Education confers a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree on IDES graduates, and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (BSE) degree on MDE graduates.
Shown in picture: Drs. Phil Wankat, Mary Pilotte, and Dick Grace (circa 2015)
Updated: February 8, 2026