Graduate programs emphasize collaboration
Ranked first in Ohio and 18th among public universities nationwide by U.S. News & World Report, the college’s graduate offerings include 12 engineering and four Knowlton School programs—plus collaborative master’s programs in global engineering leadership and business logistics engineering.
“We train our graduates to excel in both the academy and the highly trained 21st century workforce,” said David Williams, dean of the College of Engineering. “Our research strengths—in energy and environment, manufacturing, advanced materials, sensing, transportation and data analytics—align with Ohio’s economy and the university’s discovery themes.”
Graduate students can learn, discover and innovate across a broad range of applications and scientific disciplines. As one of the world’s most comprehensive public research universities, Ohio State boasts a vast infrastructure and concentrated resources to support graduate education and research at the highest level. The university ranks 19th in research and development expenditures and first nationally among public universities in industry-sponsored research. The college’s industry research and development expenditures in fiscal year 2013 totaled $34.4 million.
Students also learn from and work with world-class faculty and researchers, including National Academy of Engineering members, society Fellows and renowned experts.
But it’s what the College of Engineering does with these atypical assets that differentiate its graduate programs.
“We have a culture of collaborative, interdisciplinary education and research that benefits students during their education and throughout their careers,” said La’Tonia Stiner-Jones, who leads the college’s Office of Graduate Education.
Campus-wide collaboration
Rob Siston, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, biomedical engineering, orthopaedics and health & rehabilitation sciences, is one of those world-class faculty who strongly believes in the importance of interdisciplinary training for graduate students. It’s essential for students who want to do meaningful interdisciplinary work in his specialty—biomechanics—which combines engineering with medicine.
“When I first started graduate school in biomechanics, I thought, ‘If I’m really good as an engineer, I can kind of fake my way through the biological side,’” Siston explained. “Then through stumbling it became clear to me that if I really wanted to make impact in the field and approach problems that had clinical relevance, I had to be strong in both areas.”
Siston’s graduate students are co-advised by and conduct research with faculty from disciplines such as orthopedics and physical therapy, and take classes in anatomy and physical therapy. Similarly, he’s had athletic trainers, physical therapists and other students enroll in the graduate-level engineering biomechanics classes he teaches.
He says that all engineers—not just those who work at the interface of engineering and medicine—can benefit from the ability to communicate with and understand the needs of colleagues in other disciplines.
“I think the way things are going in engineering and business today, you can’t just be proficient in one engineering discipline,” he said. “You go farther and have a more satisfying career if you are trained in an interdisciplinary fashion; it’s up to you to decide what those disciplines are.”
The close proximity of Wexner Medical Center, as well as Ohio State’s 13 colleges and professional schools, enhances research collaborations and interdisciplinary training opportunities. The College of Medicine, College of Dentistry, College of Pharmacy, College of Nursing, Fisher College of Business, Moritz Law School, John Glenn School of Public Affairs and College of Veterinary Medicine are all located on Ohio State’s main campus.
Buckeye engineering graduate students also have access to more than 40 research centers and laboratories in the college—including the Spine Research Institute, Center for Manufacturing and Design Excellence, and the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis—plus premier facilities throughout the university.
“Alan Litsky, my colleague in biomedical engineering and orthopedics, says, ‘If you need a piece of equipment, someone on this campus probably has it and they’re probably going to lend it to you.’” Siston said.
Diversity focused
Recruiting and retaining diverse and talented students who excel in the engineering and architecture curriculum is also a priority. The college’s diverse and welcoming atmosphere is one of the things that attracted Desmond Bourgeois, a fifth-year welding engineering PhD student and Texas native, to Ohio State. It’s a focus he supports through his recruitment activities for the university’s National Society of Black Engineers chapter, speaking on panels to incoming graduate students, and membership in the Black Graduate and Professional Student Caucus.
Bourgeois developed a testing method for sponsor ExxonMobil that more simply, quickly and cheaply predicts and mitigates hydrogen-assisted cracking in dissimilar pipeline steel welds. Working on the NSF I/UCRC Center for Integrative Materials Joining Science (CIMJSEA) project provides Bourgeois with experience collaborating with multiple companies as well as researchers from three universities.
“Ohio State really gave me the opportunity for exposure and to meet people,” said Bourgeois. “You know what they say, ‘it’s not what you know but who you know,’ and they put me in front of the leading experts in welding and related fields.”
Solid foundation for career success
Alumna Shichuan Du (PhD ’14, electrical and computer engineering) credits the interdisciplinary training she received in cognitive science as well as electrical and computer engineering with providing a solid foundation for her work as a research and development scientist for the LENA Research Foundation. At the Colorado nonprofit, she is developing tools to help children with early language development and to detect disorders such as autism.
At Ohio State, Du worked extensively with researchers in the Department of Psychology and Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Those connections, she said, were key to the success of her doctoral research in face perception and emotion processing in the human brain.
“Getting that interdisciplinary experience helped a lot,” Du said. “The faculty members in psychology have a different domain of knowledge and different styles. Those interactions helped me gain more than one perspective of looking at my research problems.”
Written by Candi Clevenger, College of Engineering Communications, clevenger.87@osu.edu
