The Arkansas Department of Higher Education has approved a new doctoral program in Engineering Science and Systems in UALR’s Donaghey College of Engineering and Information Technology (EIT). The degree is the fourth new program in the last two years in the Donaghey college.

The Engineering Science and Systems (ESS) doctoral degree has been offered as one of several options in the Ph.D. program in Applied Science, and beginning in August 2011 it will be offered as a stand-alone interdisciplinary program.

The program will be supported by faculty from all six EIT departments and will be hosted by the Systems Engineering Department. The four tracks in the new ESS program are:

• Systems Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Telecommunications and Networking Engineering
• Mechanical and Materials Engineering

The ESS program includes a total of 76 credit hours – 17 hours of program core courses, 9 hours of core courses in the chosen track, 12 hours of electives, and 38 hours for dissertation research.

The program core provides students an introduction to the systems approach to engineering as well as the tools needed to be successful in graduate studies and research. In addition to a course in Systems Design and Analysis, the program core includes ethics in science and engineering, mathematical foundations, and research methodologies.

The unique structure of the program allows students to pursue interdisciplinary research in the areas listed above with any faculty member participating in the program.

“With the approval of the reconfigured Ph.D. in Engineering Science and Systems, four new programs have been added to the EIT curriculum in the last two years,” said Dr. Abhijit Bhattacharyya, EIT associate dean.

“The new graduate programs, along with those in Applied Science, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Information Quality and Bioinformatics – in collaboration with UAMS – constitute a wide range of offerings at the graduate level in engineering and information technology in central Arkansas.”

The other new programs being offered are:

• Graduate Certificate in Technology Innovation, an 18-hour program teaching the development, evaluation and implementation of original ideas for existing businesses and new enterprises. The curriculum is designed to teach specific skills necessary to effectively innovate new products and services.

• Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering – This program is the only one in Arkansas and surrounding states and one of only 11 accredited construction engineering programs in the United States. Construction engineering is a specialty within the broader discipline of civil engineering. UALR’s program combines structural engineering with construction management and prepares graduates to pursue licensure as Professional Engineers. In addition, UALR’s four-year construction management program is the only one of its kind at a public institution in Arkansas. Together, the two construction programs make UALR the center of construction education for a region that includes Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, and beyond.

• Ph.D. in Integrated Computing – The Integrated Computing Ph.D. program is designed to promote strong multidisciplinary collaborations across several computing disciplines whose bodies of knowledge influence and intertwine with each other. The program offers five tracks in computer engineering, net integrated computing, computer science, information science, and information quality.