Graduates from No. 3 online engineering master's program join Spring Commencement
Ernie Carr, of Winter Garden, Fla., earned his Purdue master’s degree in interdisciplinary engineering with a concentration in systems engineering while working as a senior integration and test engineer at Lockheed Martin. He is among a group of students who on May 16 received their degrees from Purdue College of Engineering’s online master’s program.
“This was a great option for me because I could pursue my master’s degree as a full-time working professional. The program’s flexibility allowed me to watch classes on my own time that fit my schedule. It if wasn’t for the accommodation of students like me, I wouldn’t have been able to go back to school to earn my master’s degree,” said Carr.
He and his fellow online engineering graduates were honored during a reception at Wang Hall following commencement exercises where they participated just like the residential master’s students. In total, the College produced 83 online master’s graduates during the 2022 spring commencement:
School of Aeronautics and Astronautics – 17
Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering – 11
School of Industrial Engineering – 4
Interdisciplinary Engineering Program – 40
School of Mechanical Engineering – 11
“Learning is not restricted to one age group or one location,” said Mung Chiang, the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering and Purdue executive vice president for strategic initiatives. “Purdue Engineering is proud of our thousands of online students taking the high-quality, innovative courses, and we congratulate those receiving their master’s degrees today on their persistence in learning.”
Purdue Engineering, which has been offering distance education opportunities for more than 60 years, attributes its online growth in recent years to the exceptional faculty and students, quality of the curriculum, support coaches and staff, micro-credential options, flexibility and affordability, and the foundation provided by Purdue Online, said Dimitrios Peroulis, Purdue’s Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering and special advisor to the dean of engineering on online learning.
“We are very proud of the achievements of our online Engineering students. All of our online MS programs enable students to take the same courses from the same instructors and earn the same quality degrees as their on-campus peers,” Peroulis said. “We are confident that the advanced skills and abilities they developed through their graduate studies at Purdue will empower them to pursue many key opportunities in the future.”
Online master’s students have many innovative choices such as the interdisciplinary MSE/MS and dual MSE-MBA programs. Recently created majors include engineering education and nuclear engineering. Graduate students also can choose from a variety of specialty certificates in areas like reliability and decision making, quantum technology, applied heat transfer and digital signal processing. Students also can pursue innovative majors and credentials in semiconductors and microelectronics fully online.
“Throughout my experience, the professors consistently exceeded my expectations to accommodate virtual students. While I was unable to attend the courses in person, the professors would understand the online presence of their students and would offer help such as later and recorded office hours. This is just one example of how being an online student at Purdue didn’t make me feel so distant,” said Carr, who earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 2015 from the University of South Florida.
U.S. News & World Report consistently has ranked Purdue’s online engineering programs among the best in the nation. For both 2021 and 2022, Purdue has remained in the No. 1 spot in three specific degrees: electrical engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering. Additionally in 2022, engineering management rose to No. 1, and civil engineering kept its No. 2 spot. Collectively, online master’s programs in the College of Engineering rank No. 3 among 112 colleges and universities considered for ranking in the U.S.
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