WMU News

Ph.D. added in electrical and computer engineering

Dec. 9, 2001

KALAMAZOO -- Acting at their Dec. 7 meeting, Western Michigan University trustees approved a new doctoral degree in electrical and computer engineering, bringing the total number of doctoral programs in the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences to five.

The new program will begin in fall 2002 with an initial enrollment of about 10 students and is expected to produce two to three doctoral graduates annually by 2006. The program will engage students in study and research in such areas as biomedical and life science applications, signal processing and communications, and intelligent control systems.

Graduates of the new program are expected to be in demand for jobs in government, at universities or in industrial research centers. The target audience for the program includes students living and working in Southwest Michigan as well as international students.

"We receive numerous letters of interest from prospective students and we know from national data that there is a rapidly growing demand for electrical and computer engineers with education at the doctoral level," says Dr. Daniel M. Litynksi, dean of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. "We've designed our program to both meet the technology needs of Michigan and take advantage of our faculty's expertise and research interests, and graduate students who can make great contributions to our nation."

Completion of the program will require 50 semester hours beyond the master's degree in either electrical or computer engineering. Those hours will include course work, independent research, research seminar projects, qualifying and comprehensive examinations, and dissertation research, production and defense.

For more information about the program, contact Dr. S. H. Mousavinezhad, chairperson of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at <h.mousavinezhad@wmich.edu>.

Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 269 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu


Office of University Relations
Western Michigan University
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo MI 49008-5433 USA
269 387-8400
univ-rel@wmich.edu

http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news