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UVA Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program | |
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University of Virginia Celebrates 175 Years of Engineering
Current Students: Prospective Students: On-Grounds
Students: Site
Coordinators: Additional Programs:
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Program Overview Program Overview
This program effort is in response to one of the State Council of Higher Education's objectives to expand technical education opportunities for Virginians. The primary intent of CGEP is to provide engineers and other qualified individuals with strong backgrounds in the sciences an opportunity to pursue a program in graduate studies leading to a master's degree in engineering. However, courses may also be taken on a non-degree, continuing education basis. At the University of Virginia, CGEP students are treated just like students enrolled on-grounds in Charlottesville and the degree obtained is the same as one earned on-grounds. Thereby, CGEP students have certain responsibilities, including adhering to the University of Virginia Honor Code.
Background of the ProgramThe Program began in the Fall semester of 1983 with the UVA broadcasts being extended to a single receiving site located in the Cabell Library at VCU. During this initial year, two courses in Materials Science and two courses in Civil Engineering were offered. This initiation provided the necessary learning experience in the operation of all the associated equipment and provided the experiment from which data on the success of this extended classroom concept could be obtained. Although certain minimal problems were encountered, the overall program was met with much enthusiasm and was considered quite successful.Beginning with the Fall semester of 1984, courses in the following engineering disciplines were offered each semester: Chemical; Materials Science, Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, and Systems Engineering. Also, several industrial classrooms became operational, receiving both the UVa and VPI broadcasts via instructional television fixed service (ITFS) transmitters in the host institutions' regions. In addition, the Telestar facility (UVa Continuing Education in Falls Church, Virginia) became operational in the Spring semester, 1985. In the 1985-86 semester, our courses could be received by 16 off-grounds locations. Starting in Fall 1986, our courses were offered via satellite. Our broadcasts could now reach all regions of Virginia and locations out-of-state as well. The course offerings were also expanded from six courses per semester to eight. The Fall 1986 semester began with 22 off-grounds receive sites operating; two of these sites were out-of-state, with one in Maryland and one in Pennsylvania. Sites in Tennessee and New York were added in 1987. Since 1987, the UVa Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering degree has provided an emphasis on our Manufacturing Systems specialty. Nuclear Engineering, added in the Fall of 1988, was the seventh graduate engineering degree to be offered by the University of Virginia on television. However, in 1997 it was decided to phase out the Nuclear program and concentrate on offering additional courses to round out our Mechanical and Aerospace Program. In 1994 we changed our satellite transmission from an analog to a digital signal; and since Fall 1998 we delivered classes using digital videoconferencing. In Spring 2011 and Fall 2011, we began offering some courses on-line (web-based, synchronous, as well as asynchronous), and in Spring 2012, will switch completely to web-based courses. The program will continue to follow a schedule of late afternoon and evening courses to accommodate the working engineer who desires to pursue a graduate degree on a part-time basis. ContactsRespective points of contact, who provide regional support in terms of personal contacts and administration as well as offering selected supporting courses, are listed here:
The Future of the ProgramWe hope that this program will continue to offer a distance learning program that meets the needs of today's working engineers by taking advantage of technology that has advanced well beyond that which we had at our disposal during the 1980's when the program first began. We feel that our plans to offer an on-line, web-based program will better suit today's fast-paced lifestyle and allow more individuals to further their education without undue disruption to their present busy schedules.At the University of Virginia, we look forward to serving more students with this versatile and exciting program. 3/12/12 |
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