NextWave STEM is a leader in K-12 STEM education. Using the “five essentials” (leadership, self-development, team development, strategic thinking, civic-mindedness and innovation), the company’s vision is to empower students and educators to excel in a continuously changing world. Since its founding in 2017, NextWave STEM has partnered with more than 500 schools and community organizations nationally, served more than 200,000 students, and created award-winning STEM programs in emerging technologies. Schools and community organizations who have partnered with NextWave STEM report improved student attendance, increased student interest in STEM-related courses and careers, and increased teacher confidence in teaching STEM and emerging technologies.
NextWave STEM is a visionary leader that understands the needs of tomorrow and how to best equip and inspire the leaders of tomorrow with the tools and skills to be successful. By combining the project-based learning of STEM with innovative, emerging technologies, the company works to improve academic outcomes, close the achievement gap, and open new opportunities post high school and throughout one’s career.
The company makes STEM education engaging for students, easy for teachers and affordable for partners. Their solutions include award-winning curricula, hands-on exploration kits, and professional development. Courses cover: robotics and artificial intelligence, drones and coding, 3D printing and modeling, cybersecurity, entrepreneurship, and solar and renewable energy, and more. Courses are designed to help students develop the 21st Century skills needed to master problem solving and critical thinking, and be prepared for the influx of STEM-related careers, while professional development helps teachers master the facilitation of STEM education.
NextWaveSTEM® was born in Chicago as the brainchild of our founder, Udit Agarwal (pictured). While working as an IT analyst for Chicago Public Schools, Udit saw the need for excellent and easy-to-implement STEM education. He knew the importance of the education system and the economy at large to empower students with the 21st-century skills of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math as well as Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Innovation. Nonetheless, he didn’t see it being taught in a way that was fun for kids—while also meeting state and national standards.
As Udit learned more and became more interested in robotics, he started researching how to bring robotics classes to schools. He started putting the pieces together to start NextWaveSTEM. In 2017, Udit launched NextWaveSTEM® by offering after-school programming in Chicago. Today, at NextWaveSTEM, Udit’s company offers in-person and virtual courses for schools and turn-key curricula in Robotics, Drone Coding, Artificial Intelligence, 3D Printing, and more at K-12 schools nationwide.
“For our students, we hope to spark a new way of learning using real-world applications and inquiry-based learning,” says Udit. “For our fellow educators, we offer authentic support from our own educators, curriculum developers, and executive team.”
For these reasons and more, Udit Agarwal of NextWaveSTEM earned an EdTech Leadership Award for his visionary work in our field as part of The EdTech Awards from EdTech Digest. Learn more.
Over the Northern Hemisphere's summer, the world's temperatures hovered near 1.5° C above pre-industrial temperatures, and the catastrophic weather events that ensued provided a preview of what might be expected to be the new normal before mid-century. And the warming won't stop there; our current emissions trajectory is such that we will double that temperature increase by the time the century is out and continue beyond its end.
This frightening trajectory and its results have led many people to argue that some form of geoengineering is necessary. If we know the effects of that much warming will be catastrophic, why not try canceling some of it out? Unfortunately, the list of "why nots" includes the fact that we don't know how well some of these techniques work or fully understand their unintended consequences. This means more research is required before we put them into practice.
But how do we do that research if there's the risk of unintended consequences? To help guide the process, the American Geophysical Union (AGU) has just released guidelines for ensuring that geoengineering research is conducted ethically.
CodeGuppy is a free coding platform for schools, coding clubs, and independent learners. Teachers can use codeguppy.com to teach students the JavaScript language by building video games with sprites and sounds. A ton of example projects are included with the platform. With CodeGuppy, students learn coding by building games and fun applications.
With CodeGuppy you’ll learn to code real games and applications directly in your browser. You don’t need to install any software on your local machine. Any Windows, Mac or Chromebook computer is perfect for CodeGuppy.
At CodeGuppy.com they teach JavaScript – the most used and popular programming language nowadays. Their multi-scene code editor is empowering beginners to type their first line of code as well as advanced users to create multi-scene platform games.
To make coding fun and engaging, CodeGuppy provides you with a full library of animated characters, background images, and sounds that you can use in your games and applications.
Learning to code is easy and fun with the right platform. Teachers, parents, and students can use this platform in the classroom, coding club, or at home. The entire curriculum of lessons and projects is tailor-made for students with activities such as interactive graphics and game creation. Using this platform, students love creating programs and sharing them with their friends.
For these reasons and more, CodeGuppy earned a Cool Tool Award (finalist) for “Best Coding, Computer Science, Engineering Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2023. Learn more.
Over the past 20 years, technological advances have enabled inventors to go from strength to strength. And yet, according to the legendary inventor Dean Kamen, innovation has stalled. Kamen made a name for himself with inventions including the first portable insulin pump for diabetics, an advanced wheelchair that can climb steps, and the Segway mobility device. Here, he talks about his plan for enabling innovators.
How has inventing changed since you started in the 1990s?
Dean Kamen: Kids all over the world can now be inventing in the world of synthetic biology the way we played with Tinkertoys and Erector Sets and Lego. I used to put pins and smelly formaldehyde in frogs in high school. Today in high school, kids will do experiments that would have won you the Nobel Prize in Medicine 40 years ago. But none of those kids are likely in any short time to be on the market with a pharmaceutical that will have global impact. Today, while invention is getting easier and easier, I think there are some aspects of innovation that have gotten much more difficult.
Can you explain the difference?
Kamen: Most people think those two words mean the same thing. Invention is coming up with an idea or a thing or a process that has never been done that way before. [Thanks to] more access to technology and 3D printers and simulation programs and virtual ways to make things, the threshold to be able to create something new and different has dramatically lowered.
Historically, inventions were only the starting point to get to innovation. And I’ll define an innovation as something that reached a scale where it impacted a piece of the world, or transformed it: the wheel, steam, electricity, Internet. Getting an invention to the scale it needs to be to become an innovation has gotten easier—ifit’s software. But if it’s sophisticated technology that requires mechanical or physical structure in a very competitive world? It’s getting harder and harder to do due to competition, due to global regulatory environments.
[For example,] in proteomics [the study of proteins] and genomics and biomedical engineering, the invention part is, believe it or not, getting a little easier because we know so much, because there are development platforms now to do it. But getting a biotech product cleared by the Food and Drug Administration is getting more expensive and time consuming, and the risks involved are making the investment community much more likely to invest in the next version of Angry Birds than curing cancer.
A lot of ink has been spilled about how AI is changing inventing. Why hasn’t that helped?
Kamen: AI is an incredibly valuable tool. As long as the value you’re looking for is to be able to collect massive amounts of data and being able to process that data effectively. That’s very different than what a lot of people believe, which is that AI is inventing and creating from whole cloth new and different ideas.
How are you using AI to help with innovation?
Kamen: Every medical school has incredibly brilliant professors and grad students with petri dishes. “Look, I can make nephrons. We can grow people a new kidney. They won’t need dialysis.” But they only have petri dishes full of the stuff. And the scale they need is hundreds and hundreds of liters.
I started a not-for-profit called ARMI—the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute—to help make it practical to manufacture human cells, tissues, and organs. We are using artificial intelligence to speed up our development processes and eliminate going down frustratingly long and expensive [dead-end] paths. We figure out how to bring tissue manufacturing to scale. We build the bioreactors, sensor technologies, robotics, and controls. We’re going to put them together and create an industry that can manufacture hundreds of thousands of replacement kidneys, livers, pancreases, lungs, blood, bone, you name it.
So ARMI’s purpose is to help would-be innovators?
Kamen: We are not going to make a product. We’re not even going to make a whole company. We’re going to create baseline core technologies that will enable all sorts of products and companies to emerge to create an entire new industry. It will be an innovation in health care that will lower costs because cures are much cheaper than chronic treatments. We have to break down the barriers so that these fantastic inventions can become global innovations.
This article appears in the November 2024 print issue as “The Inventor’s Inventor.”
Wesley L. Harris’s life is a testament to the power of mentorship and determination. Harris, born in 1941 in Richmond, Virginia, grew up during the tumultuous years of the Civil Rights Movement and faced an environment fraught with challenges. His parents, both of whom only had a third-grade education, walked to Richmond from rural Virginia counties when the Great Depression left the region’s farming communities destitute. They found work as laborers in the city’s tobacco factories but pushed their son to pursue higher education so he could live a better life.
Today, Harris is a professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT and heads the school’s Hypersonic Research Laboratory. More importantly, he is committed to fostering the next generation of engineers, particularly students of color.
“I’ve been keeping my head down, working with students of color—especially at the Ph.D. level—to produce more scholars,” Harris says. “I do feel good about that.”
From physics to aerospace engineering
Harris’s journey into the world of science began under the guidance of his physics teacher at the all-Black Armstrong High School, in Richmond. The instructor taught Harris how to build a cloud chamber to investigate the collision of alpha particles with water droplets. The chamber made it possible to visualize the passage of ionizing radiation emitted by radium 226, which Harris sourced from a wristwatch that used the substance to make the watch hands glow in the dark.
The project won first prize at Virginia’s statewide Black high school science fair, and he took the bold step of signing up for a separate science fair held for the state’s White students. Harris’s project received the third-place prize in physics at that event.
Those awards and his teacher’s unwavering belief in Harris’s potential pushed him to aim higher. He says that he wanted nothing more than to become a physicist like her. Ironically, it was also her influence that led him to shift his career path from physics to aeronautical engineering.
When discussing which college he should attend, she spoke to him as though he were a soldier getting his marching orders. “Wesley, you will go to the University of Virginia [in Charlottesville],” she proclaimed.
Harris applied, knowing full well that the school did not allow Black students in the 1960s to pursue degrees in mathematics, physics, chemistry, English, economics, or political science.
The only available point of entry for him was the university’s School of Engineering. He chose aerospace as his focus—the only engineering discipline that interested him. Harris became one of only seven Black students on a campus with 4,000 undergrads and the first Black student to join the prestigious Jefferson Society literary and debate club. He graduated in 1964 with a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering. He went on to earn his master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace engineering from Princeton in 1966 and 1968, respectively.
Harris’s Ph.D. thesis advisor at Princeton reinforced the values of mentorship and leadership instilled by his high school teacher, urging Harris to focus not only on his research but on how he could uplift others.
Harris began his teaching career by breaking down barriers at the University of Virginia in 1968. He was the first Black person in the school’s history to be offered a tenured faculty position. He was also the university’s first Black engineering professor. In 1972, he joined MIT as a professor of aeronautics and astronautics.
Harris’s dedication to supporting underrepresented minority groups at MIT began early in his tenure. In 1975, he founded the Office of Minority Education, where he pioneered innovative teaching methods such as videotaping and replaying lectures, which helped countless students succeed. “Some of those old videotapes may still be around,” he says, laughing.
“I’ve been keeping my head down, working with students of color—especially at the Ph.D. level—to produce more scholars. I do feel good about that.”
Over the years, he has periodically stepped away from MIT to take on other roles, including Program Manager in the Fluid and Thermal Physics Office and as manager of Computational Methods at NASA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1979 to 1980. He returned to NASA in 1993 and served as Associate Administrator for Aeronautics, overseeing personnel, programs, and facilities until 1995.
Harris is a respected aeronautical innovator. Near the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Army approached MIT to help it solve a problem. Helicopters were being shot down by the enemy, who had learned to distinguish attack helicopters from those used for performing reconnaissance or transporting personnel and cargo by the noise they made. The Army needed a solution that would reduce the helicopters’ acoustic signatures without compromising performance. Harris and his aeronautics team at MIT delivered that technology. In January 1978, they presented a lab report detailing their findings to the U.S. Department of Defense. “Experimental and Theoretical Studies on Model Helicopter Rotor Noise” was subsequently published in The Journal of Sound and Vibration. A year later, Harris and his colleagues at the Fluid Dynamic Research Laboratory wrote another lab report on the topic, “Parametric Studies of Model Helicopter Blade Slap and Rotational Noise.”
Harris has also heightened scientists’ understanding of the climate-altering effects of shock waves propagating upward from aircraft flying at supersonic speeds. He discovered that these high-speed airflows trigger chemical reactions among the carbon, oxides, nitrides, and sulfides in the atmosphere.
Despite his technical achievements, Harris says his greatest fulfillment comes from mentoring students. He takes immense pride in the four students who recently earned doctorates in hypersonics under his guidance, especially a Black woman who graduated this year.
Harris’s commitment to nurturing young talent extends beyond his graduate students. For more than two decades, he has served as a housemaster at MIT’s New House residence hall, where he helps first-year undergraduate students successfully transition to campus life.
“You must provide an environment that fosters the total development of the student, not just mastery of physics, chemistry, math, and economics,” Harris says.
He takes great satisfaction in watching his students grow and succeed, knowing that he helped prepare them to make a positive impact on the world.
Reflecting on his career, Harris acknowledges the profound impact of the mentors who guided him. Their lessons continue to influence his work and his unwavering commitment to mentoring the next generation.
“I’ve always wanted to be like my high school teacher—a physicist who not only had deep knowledge of the scientific fundamentals but also compassion and love for Black folks,” he says.
Through his work, Harris has not only advanced the field of aerospace engineering but has also paved the way for future generations to soar.
IEEE TryEngineering has partnered with Keysight Technologies to develop lesson plans focused on electronics and power simulation. Keysight provides hardware, software, and services to a wide variety of industries, particularly in the area of electronic measurement.
IEEE TryEngineering, an IEEE Educational Activities program, empowers educators to foster the next generation of technology innovators through free, online access to culturally relevant, developmentally appropriate, and educationally sound instructional resources for teachers and community volunteers.
The lesson plans cover a variety of STEM topics, experience levels, and age ranges. Educators should be able to find an applicable topic for their students, regardless of their grade level or interests.
Lesson plans on circuits
There are already a number of lesson plans available through the Keysight partnership that introduce students to electrical concepts, with more being developed. The most popular one thus far is Series and Parallel Circuits, which has been viewed more than 100 times each month. Teams of pupils predict the difference between a parallel and serial circuit design by building examples using wires, light bulbs, and batteries.
“TryEngineering is proud to be Keysight’s partner in attaining the ambitious goal of bringing engineering lessons to 1 million students in 2024.” —Debra Gulick
The newest of the Keysight-sponsored lesson plans, Light Up Name Badge, teaches the basics of circuitry, such as the components of a circuit, series and parallel circuits, and electronic component symbols. Students can apply their newfound knowledge in a design challenge wherein they create a light-up badge with their name.
Developing a workforce through STEM outreach
“Keysight’s commitment to workforce development through preuniversity STEM outreach makes it an ideal partner for IEEE TryEngineering,” says Debra Gulick, director of student and academic education programs for IEEE Educational Activities.
In addition, Keysight’s corporate social responsibility vision to build a better planet by accelerating innovation to connect and secure the world while employing a global business framework of ethical, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible operations makes it a suitable IEEE partner.
“TryEngineering is proud to be Keysight’s partner in attaining the ambitious goal of bringing engineering lessons to 1 million students in 2024,” Gulick says.
She either waited outside the conference room or helped with tasks such as serving refreshments. Even though her husband encouraged her to sit in on the meetings, she says, she felt uncomfortable doing so because she wasn’t an engineer. Brown is an accountant and human resources professional. Her husband is a computer science professor at the University of Technology, Jamaica, in Kingston. He is currently Region 3’s education activities coordinator and a member of the section’s education and outreach committee for the IEEE Educational Activities Board.
After earning her master’s degree in public administration in 2017, Brown says, she felt she finally was qualified to join IEEE, so she applied. Membership is open to individuals who, by education or experience, are competent in different fields including management. She was approved the same year.
“When I joined IEEE, I would spend long hours at night reading various operations manuals and policies because I wanted to know what I was getting into,” she says. “I was always learning. That’s how I got to know a lot of things about the organization.”
Brown is now a senior member and an active IEEE volunteer. She founded the Jamaica Section’s Women in Engineering group; established a student branch; sits on several high-level IEEE boards; and ran several successful recruitment campaigns to increase the number of senior members in Jamaica and throughout Region 3.
Brown was also a member of the subcommittee of the global Women in Engineering committee; she served as membership coordinator and ran several successful senior member campaigns, elevating women on the committee and across IEEE.
Brown also was integral in the promotion and follow-up activities for the One IEEE event held in January at the University of Technology, Jamaica. The first-of-its-kind workshop connected more than 200 participants to each other and to the organization by showcasing Jamaica’s active engineering community. The Jamaica Section has 135 IEEE members.
From factory worker to accountant
Brown grew up in Bog Walk, a rural town in the parish of St. Catherine. Because she had low grades in high school, the only job she was able to get after graduating was as a temporary factory worker at the nearby Nestlé plant. She worked as many shifts as she could to help support her family.
“I didn’t mind working,” she says, “because I was making my mark. Anything I do, I am going to be excellent at, whether it’s cleaning the floor or doing office work.” But she had bigger plans than being a factory worker, she says.
A friend told her about a temporary job overseeing exams at the Jamaican Institute of Management, now part of the University of Technology. Brown worked both jobs for a time until the school hired her full time to do administrative work in its accounting department.
One of the perks of working there was free tuition for employees, and Brown took full advantage. She studied information management and computer applications, Jamaican securities, fraud detection, forensic auditing, and supervisory management, earning an associate degree in business administration in 2007. The school hired her in 2002 as an accountant, and she worked there for five years.
In 2007 she joined the Office of the Prime Minister, in Kingston, initially as an officer handling payments to suppliers. Her hard work and positive attitude got her noticed by other managers, she says. After a month she was tapped by the budget department to become a commitment control officer, responsible for allocating and overseeing funding for four of the country’s ministries.
“What I realized through my volunteer work in IEEE is that you’re never alone. There is always somebody to guide you.”
As a young accountant, she didn’t have hands-on experience with budgeting, but she was a quick learner who produced quality work, she says. She learned the budgeting process by helping her colleagues when her work slowed down and during her lunch breaks.
That knowledge gave her the skills she needed to land her current job as an assistant accountant with the budget and management accounts group in the Maritime Authority of Jamaica accounts department, a position she has held since 2013.
While she was working for the Office of the Prime Minister, Brown continued to further her education. She took night courses at the University of Technology and, in 2012, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. She majored in accounting and minored in human resources management.
She secured a full scholarship in 2016 from the Chinese government to study public administration in Beijing at Tsinghua University, earning a master’s degree with distinction in 2017.
Brown says she is now ready to shift to a human resources career. Even though she has been supervising people for more than 17 years, though, she is having a hard time finding an HR position, she says.
Still willing to take on challenges, she is increasing her experience by volunteering with an HR consulting firm in Jamaica. To get more formal training, she is currently working on an HR certification from the Society for Human Resource Management.
Sharlene Brown arranged for the purchase of 350 desk shields for Jamaican schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.Sharlene Brown
Building a vibrant community
After graduating from Tsinghua University, Brown began volunteering for the IEEE Jamaica Section and Region 3.
In 2019 she founded the section’s IEEE Women in Engineering affinity group, which she chaired for three years. She advocated for more women in leadership roles and has run successful campaigns to increase the number of female senior members locally, regionally, and globally across IEEE. She herself was elevated to senior member in 2019.
Brown also got the WIE group more involved in helping the community. One project she is particularly proud of is the purchase of 350 desk shields for Jamaican schools so students could more safely attend classes and examination sessions in person during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brown was inspired to undertake the project when a student explained on a local news program that his family couldn’t afford Internet for their home, so he was unable to attend classes remotely.
“Every time I watched the video clip, I would cry,” she says. “This young man might be the next engineer, the country’s next minister, or the next professional.
“I’m so happy we were able to get funding from Region 3 and a local organization to provide those shields.”
She established an IEEE student branch at the Caribbean Maritime University, in Kingston. The branch had almost 40 students at the time of formation.
Brown is working to form student branches at other Jamaican universities, and she is attempting to establish an IEEE Power & Energy Society chapter in the section.
She is a member of several IEEE committees including the Election Oversight and Tellers. She serves as chair for the region’s Professional Activities Committee.
“What I realized through my volunteer work in IEEE is that you’re never alone,” she says. “There is always somebody to help guide you. If they don’t know something, they will point you to the person who does.
“Also, you’re allowed to make mistakes,” she says. “In some organizations, if you make a mistake, you might lose your job or have to pay for your error. But IEEE is your professional home, where you learn, grow, and make mistakes.”
On some of the IEEE committees where she serves, she is the only woman of color, but she says she has not faced any discrimination—only respect.
“I feel comfortable and appreciated by the people and the communities I work with,” she says. “That motivates me to continue to do well and to touch lives positively. That’s what makes me so active in serving in IEEE: You’re appreciated and rewarded for your hard work.”
This award-winning Cool Tool covers Inquiry, Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth and Space Science with lessons specifically designed for early learners. Within the subjects, there are eight units and 28 modules. Each module has eight sessions that teach science using the 5E Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate).
Within this digital product, the sessions contain 1000s of online and offline activities that can be completed in as little as 10 minutes and teach students using videos, interaction, poems, songs, and digital notebooks. Students broaden their vocabulary and understanding of scientific terminology while allowing educators to teach literacy and science simultaneously. The exercises incorporate literacy skills, exposing students to science vocabulary, sight words, and more.
Stacy Taylor has more than 18 years of educational experience. Taylor is the Principal of Advance Learning Academy in Maitland, Florida. Advance Learning Academy provides its students with a strong, innovative curriculum that includes 1-to-1 iPad usage. One of the favorite programs is Science4Us. Taylor mainly chose Science4Us because it aligns with her school’s focus of providing a unique and differentiated experience that works with each child.
“There are so many options within the Science4Us program and teachers can pick and choose what works best with their students,” says Taylor. In fact, the students enjoy using it so much that Taylor notes that sometimes the students don’t feel like they are doing schoolwork. “They want to play the games on their iPads and use it during their earned break time!” To her, this dedication speaks volumes.
For these reasons and more, ExploreLearning Science4Us is a Cool Tool Award Winner for “Best STEM Solution” as part of The EdTech Awards 2024 from EdTech Digest. Learn more.
Companies large and small are seeking engineers with up-to-date, subject-specific knowledge in disciplines like computer engineering, automation, artificial intelligence, and circuit design. Mid-level engineers need to advance their skillsets to apply and integrate these technologies and be competitive.
As applications for new technologies continue to grow, demand for knowledgeable electrical and computer engineers is also on the rise. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, job outlook for electrical and electronics engineers—as well as computer hardware engineers—is set to grow 5 percent through 2032. Electrical and computer engineers work in almost every industry. They design systems, work on power transmission and power supplies, run computers and communication systems, innovate chips for embedded and so much more.
To take advantage of this job growth and get more return-on-investment, engineers are advancing their knowledge by going back to school. The 2023 IEEE-USA Salary and Benefits Survey Report shows that engineers with focused master’s degrees (e.g., electrical and computer engineering, electrical engineering, or computer engineering) earned median salaries almost US $27,000 per year higher than their colleagues with bachelors’ degrees alone.
Purdue’s online MSECE program has been ranked in the top 3 of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Online Electrical Engineering Master’s Programs for five years running
Universities like Purdue University work with companies and professionals to provide upskilling opportunities via distance and online education. Purdue has offered a distance Master of Science in Electrical and Computer Engineering (MSECE) since the 1980s. In its early years, the program’s course lectures were videotaped and mailed to students. Now, “distance” has transformed into “online,” and the program has grown with the web, expanding its size and scope. Today, the online MSECE has awarded master’s degrees to 190+ online students since the Fall 2021 semester.
“Purdue has a long-standing reputation of engineering excellence and Purdue engineers work worldwide in every company, including General Motors, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Texas Instruments, Apple, and Sandia National Laboratories among scores of others,” said Lynn Hegewald, the senior program manager for Purdue’s online MSECE. “Employers everywhere are very aware of Purdue graduates’ capabilities and the quality of the education they bring to the job.”
Today, the online MSECE program continues to select from among the world’s best professionals and gives them an affordable, award-winning education. The program has been ranked in the top 3 of U.S. News and World Report’s Best Online Electrical Engineering Master’s Programs for five years running (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024).
The online MSECE offers high-quality research and technical skills, high-level analytical thinking and problem-solving skills, and new ideas to help innovate—all highly sought-after, according to one of the few studies to systematically inventory what engineering employers want (information corroborated on occupational guidance websites like O-Net and the Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Remote students get the same education as on-campus students and become part of the same alumni network.
“Our online MSECE program offers the same exceptional quality as our on-campus offerings to students around the country and the globe,” says Prof. Milind Kulkarni, Michael and Katherine Birck Head of the Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. “Online students take the same classes, with the same professors, as on-campus students; they work on the same assignments and even collaborate on group projects.
“Our online MSECE program offers the same exceptional quality as our on-campus offerings to students around the country and the globe” —Prof. Milind Kulkarni, Purdue University
“We’re very proud,” he adds, “that we’re able to make a ‘full-strength’ Purdue ECE degree available to so many people, whether they’re working full-time across the country, live abroad, or serve in the military. And the results bear this out: graduates of our program land jobs at top global companies, move on to new roles and responsibilities at their current organizations, or even continue to pursue graduate education at top PhD programs.”
Variety and Quality in Purdue’s MSECE
As they study for their MSECE degrees, online students can select from among a hundred graduate-level courses in their primary areas of interest, including innovative one-credit-hour courses that extend the students’ knowledge. New courses and new areas of interest are always in the pipeline.
Purdue MSECE Area of Interest and Course Options
Automatic Control
Communications, Networking, Signal and Image Processing
Computer Engineering
Fields and Optics
Microelectronics and Nanotechnology
Power and Energy Systems
VLSI and Circuit Design
Semiconductors
Data Mining
Quantum Computing
IoT
Big Data
Heather Woods, a process engineer at Texas Instruments, was one of the first students to enroll and chose the microelectronics and nanotechnology focus area. She offers this advice: “Take advantage of the one credit-hour classes! They let you finish your degree faster while not taking six credit hours every semester.”
Completing an online MSECE from Purdue University also teaches students professional skills that employers value like motivation, efficient time-management, high-level analysis and problem-solving, and the ability to learn quickly and write effectively.
“Having an MSECE shows I have the dedication and knowledge to be able to solve problems in engineering,” said program alumnus Benjamin Francis, now an engineering manager at AkzoNobel. “As I continue in my career, this gives me an advantage over other engineers both in terms of professional advancement opportunity and a technical base to pull information from to face new challenges.”
Finding Tuition Assistance
Working engineers contemplating graduate school should contact their human resources departments and find out what their tuition-assistance options are. Does your company offer tuition assistance? What courses of study do they cover? Do they cap reimbursements by course, semester, etc.? Does your employer pay tuition directly, or will you pay out-of-pocket and apply for reimbursement?
Prospective U.S. students who are veterans or children of veterans should also check with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to see if they qualify to for tuition or other assistance.
The MSECE Advantage
In sum, the online Master’s degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University does an extraordinary job giving students the tools they need to succeed in school and then in the workplace: developing the technical knowledge, the confidence, and the often-overlooked professional skills that will help them excel in their careers.
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NextWave STEM is a leader in K-12 STEM education. Using the “five essentials” (leadership, self-development, team development, strategic thinking, civic-mindedness and innovation), the company’s vision is to empower students and educators to excel in a continuously changing world. Since its founding in 2017, NextWave STEM has partnered with more than 500 schools and community organizations nationally, served more than 200,000 students, and created award-winning STEM programs in emerging technologies. Schools and community organizations who have partnered with NextWave STEM report improved student attendance, increased student interest in STEM-related courses and careers, and increased teacher confidence in teaching STEM and emerging technologies.