A Study To Establish A Masters Degree Program In Electronics And Computer Technology At Bowling Green State University
- Conference
- Location
-
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Publication Date
-
June 22, 2008
- Start Date
-
June 22, 2008
- End Date
-
June 25, 2008
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Engineering Technology
- Page Count
-
16
- Page Numbers
-
13.118.1 - 13.118.16
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--3490
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/3490
- Download Count
-
802
Paper Authors
Joseph Mainoo Bowling Green State University
Joseph Mainoo is a doctoral student in the Technology Management degree at the Indiana State University, IN. He received his M.I.T. degree and B.S. degree in Electronics and Computer Technology from the Bowling Green State University, OH, in 2006 and 2004, respectively. He also has a Diploma in Management Information Systems from the Institute for the Management of Information Systems, London, UK. His academic interests are in the areas of information technology and electronics. He is a student member of ISA.
Sri Kolla Bowling Green State University
Sri Kolla is a Professor in the Electronics and Computer Technology Program at the Bowling Green State University, Ohio, since 1993. He worked as a Guest Researcher at the Intelligent Systems Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, 2000-‘01. He was an Assistant Professor at the Pennsylvania State University, 1990-‘93. He got a Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Toledo, Ohio, 1989. His teaching and research interests are in electrical engineering/technology area with specialization in artificial intelligence, control systems, computer networking and power systems. He is a senior member of IEEE and ISA.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
A Study to Establish a Masters Degree Program in Electronics and Computer Technology at Bowling Green State University
Abstract
This paper presents the results of a study conducted to assess the feasibility of establishing a master’s degree in Electronics and Computer Technology (ECT) program at Bowling Green State University (BGSU), Ohio. Following an informal market analysis for the need of such a degree program, a review of ten technology masters programs in ECT related areas at different universities was conducted to find the curriculum of the existing programs. Survey questionnaires were then administered to three groups of subjects: graduating seniors, alumni, and industrial representatives, after proper human subjects review board (HSRB) approval. A total of 55 subjects responded to the survey. The data analyzed indicated positive response to establish the masters program in ECT at BGSU. On a Likert scale of 1 to 5, the three groups of respondents ranked 4.02/5.0 in favor of establishing a master’s degree. For a question on the type of degree, 33.33 percent of the respondents indicated their interest for a Master of Science (MS) degree in ECT while 20.37 percent favored ECT specialization in Master of Industrial Technology (MIT), and 46.30 percent of the respondents did not have preference for the type of degree. The response to the interest in the inclusion of blended instruction of courses that are partially online and partially face-to-face was better (3.85/5.0) than that of complete online courses (3.64/5.0) for the degree program. Response to the inclusion of laboratory activity in the degree program received the highest rating (4.44/5.0). Respondents preferred to have a thesis/major project as a part of the degree rather than taking additional courses, by giving the lowest rating of 3.16/5.0 for additional courses. Respondents’ choices of the possible ECT specialization courses were ranked into three categories. A mixture of computer networking and control systems courses were the top choice courses among the 18 possible courses. The paper describes this survey results in detail.
I. Introduction
The U.S. Department of Labor17, Bureau of Labor Statistics16 predicts a 23.4 percent increase in job openings that require a master’s degree during 2000-2010. While there are many master’s degree programs in engineering in U.S. universities, there is a shortage of master degree programs in technology13. Bowling Green State University (BGSU) offers an undergraduate specialization in Electronics and Computer Technology (ECT) in its Bachelor of Science in Technology degree. Though it offers a Master of Industrial Technology (MIT) degree with specializations in Manufacturing and Construction Management, it has no specialization in ECT. Interested ECT students at BGSU have opted for the Manufacturing specialization to get a graduate degree by completing the synthesis experience on ECT related topic. Others have moved to a limited number of technology graduate programs available in ECT area elsewhere. A small number of students have also joined masters programs in engineering by taking needed extra math and science courses. All these students would have benefited if there were a master’s degree in ECT at BGSU.
Mainoo, J., & Kolla, S. (2008, June), A Study To Establish A Masters Degree Program In Electronics And Computer Technology At Bowling Green State University Paper presented at 2008 Annual Conference & Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 10.18260/1-2--3490
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2008 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015