The L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science is launching a new master’s program in Energy System Engineering.

The rising issues of energy conservation and consumption have created a demand for professionals in these areas, according to the program’s website. This program focuses on clean energy, conservation and sustainability.

“The college wanted to add courses that would be responsive to the needs of the market, and energy fields are most important for the future,” said Ezzat Khalifa, the program’s creator and a professor and department chair of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

He said the main goal of the program is to train engineers to become productive and successful at conserving energy, adding that he hopes to have between 24 to 30 students enroll in the program per year.

Khalifa said he created the program last fall. In order to do so, several steps of approval had to be taken as part of a long process, he said.

Khalifa said there are ten classes for the master’s program, which consist of 30 credits in total. Four courses are mandatory for every student, including energy conservation, economics and technology evaluation, optimization and management of sustainability.

In addition to the required courses, Khalifa said students must choose a track they want to follow. The three tracks available are thermal energy, alternative energy and electric energy. He said the purpose of having these tracks is so students can pursue their interests within the field of energy conservation in engineering.

Khalifa said thermal energy is the most popular track. The remaining credits for the program will come from another track outside the students’ interests, and a class from any other school on campus.

Khalifa stressed the importance of this new program because of two main problems the energy sector faces today, one of which is a shortage of resources. He said although the United States has abundant resources, they can’t all be used to satisfy the country’s energy needs.

“The big issue here is, do we have enough energy to meet expanding demands, especially when we have rapidly growing countries like India and China?” Khalifa said.

The program is currently being advertised online so information can reach students faster, he said. Khalifa added that posters, brochures and ads would be sent to other universities once the program kicks off.

Students who hold a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering or physics are eligible to apply to this program. Khalifa said he believes mechanical and aerospace engineers will have the easiest path since they will be well prepared from their degrees.

“It’s too early to tell if it’ll be competitive since the program was just approved by the state in the fall semester,” he said. “We could not start advertising it until now.”

There are numerous programs that include engineering and policy, and engineering is tied into regulation policy, which has a lot to do with environmental impacts, Khalifa added.

Joel Rosado, a mechanical engineering major, said he thinks the program will help prepare students for the future.

“If people just think about gasoline then the world isn’t going to anywhere,” he said. “If we want to clean up the world, we have to teach the younger generation first.”

Published on February 6, 2014 at 12:59 am