NCSU NE and NC A&T Cooperative Education Program

NCSU NE and NC A&T Cooperative Education Program

To:COE Graduate Studies Committee

From:Orlando E. Hankins, Assistant Professor, PI for Nuclear Engineering and Health Physics Educational Awards for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Educational Institutions

Subject:Allowance of Six hours of graduate course credit to count for BSME degree at NC A&T and towards NCSU MNE degree

Proposal:

As part of Department of Energy contract that strikes an academic partnership between the Department of Nuclear Engineering at NC State University and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University, we request that six hours of graduate level courses taken at NC State University by students at NC A&T State University, while undergraduates at NC A&T, be double-counted for both their B.S.M.E. undergraduate degree and the M.N.E. degree. The student must receive a grade of “B” (3.0) or better in the courses to receive graduate credit.

Background:

The NCSU Department of Nuclear Engineering was awarded a five-year contract with the U.S. Department of Energy in 2001 to begin a cooperative partnership with the Department of Mechanical Engineering at North Carolina A&T State University (NCAT). This program is designed to aid the NCAT ME Department in recruiting and retaining good students and aid NCSU in exposing HBCU students to nuclear engineering topics and recruitment into the nuclear engineering graduate program.

The expressed goals are:

• to attract additional students into the Batchelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering program at NCAT and to enroll them in the Master of Nuclear Engineering (M.N.E.) Program at NCSU at the conclusion of their undergraduate program at NCAT;
• to interest mechanical engineering students at NCAT in summer project research areas supported by faculty at NCSU and supporting them for their technical elective experience;
• to provide the necessary academic background to enter a NE graduate program;
• to establish collaborations between researchers at NCAT and NCSU in Mechanical/Nuclear Engineering research areas of mutual interest;
• to provide students with a research experience at a DOE laboratory (preferably Oak Ridge National Laboratory); and
• to graduate students with a M.N.E. degree in ~15 months after receipt of their B.S.M.E.

The academic part of this program is modeled after the NCSU Master of Nuclear Engineering (M.N.E.) traineeship program and the NCSU 5-year B.S./M.N.E. program. Candidates for the M.N.E. degree will complete the program of study consisting of 24 credit hours of courses and 6 credit hours of project work. Highly successful, the program is designed to provide the graduate trainee with a combination of academic coursework at NCSU and practical engineering experience at industrial or DOE national laboratory traineeship sites, leading to a M.N.E. degree.

At NCSU, we currently have a five-year combined B.S./M.N.E. degree program for our NE students. One feature of the five-year joint degree is that some graduate courses taken during the senior year can be used to satisfy both the undergraduate and graduate degree requirements. In that way, the total number of hours required is reduced. In this program, it is proposed that six hours that count towards the NCAT B.S.M.E. degree would be used towards the NCSU M.N.E. degree. In order to take advantage of this option, a student must have a G.P.A. of 3.25 on a 4.0 scale by the beginning of the senior year.

Attraction of additional motivated students into the Mechanical Engineering program at NCAT is a primary goal of the program. Recruitment activities for the department will begin during the summer and fall of the academic year and may include high school student visitations on campus, high school presentations by faculty, and scholarships to underclassmen. Students will be made aware of the requirements for this program early in their academic careers. Students satisfying the requirements for entering the joint education program (currently a 3.25 GPA) will formally select this program in the spring of their Junior year by filing an application for admission with the NCSU Graduate School. The application will be kept on file until the spring semester of the senior year at NCAT, at which time admission is granted following a review by the Graduate School.

Once accepted, the students will attend school at NCSU during the summer between their Junior and Senior years. During that period, the student will conduct an undergraduate research project under the direction of NCSU NE faculty. They will also complete a migration course on radiation, reactor, and nuclear laboratory fundamentals. This course will provide the necessary background for later NE courses. The course will be taken pass/fail credit and will not be used to satisfy the academic requirements for either degree. The research experience is viewed as preparatory to the project work for the NCSU M.N.E. degree.

The students will return to NCAT in the fall and spring semesters for their senior year. During the academic year, the students will receive scholarship support through the contract. They will also apply to the NCSU Graduate School. In the spring semester of their senior year, students in the mechanical engineering curriculum are required to take one 3-hour technical elective. Students in this program will take two NCSU NE courses as their technical electives. The courses may be delivered using distance-learning techniques (either web- and/or video-based). Both NCSU and NCAT have facilities for live video presentation of courses. Web-based techniques are being developed and may be used as appropriate. The NCSU-provided teaching assistant will spend half a day each week at NCAT to work with students. The NCSU faculty member for each class will offer a review session at NCAT prior to each examination. NCAT and NCSU faculty will serve as coordinators for their locations. The courses will be chosen from NE 404/504 Radiation Safety and Shielding, NE 405/505 Reactor Systems and NE 409/509 Nuclear Materials.

After graduation of the students with their NCAT B.S.M.E. degree in May, the students will be admitted into the NCSU Graduate School and will have a summer traineeship experience at a DOE sponsored national laboratory (2 months). The student will have both DOE laboratory scientists/engineers and faculty members as advisors during summer traineeship assignments. The students will receive 2 credit hours for that research experience. The national laboratory will pay their stipends and relocation expenses during the summer. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is supportive of this program and have indicated their support. At the end of the summer the student will have 8 hours towards their graduate degree: 6 hours of NE courses taken at NCAT as technical electives, and 2 hours credit for the summer research experience at the national laboratory. When a student submits his M.N.E. Plan of Work, the student will be identified as a participant in this program and a request will be sent to include the 6 hours as part of the M.N.E. degree.

During their first full academic year as NCSU NE graduate students, the students will take a total of 18 hours of graduate courses, normally 9 credit hours in nuclear engineering and 9 credit hours in their selected minor (probably ME). The student will be supported by a stipend through the contract during this year. They will have the opportunity to participate, as time permits, in research on campus or on some aspect of their summer research that can be done locally.

In the following summer (4 months), the student will complete a M.N.E. research project at a national laboratory, earning 4 credit hours for a total of the 30 hours required to complete the M.N.E. degree. Again, the national laboratory will provide the funding for the student during those 4 months.

Upon graduation, the student will have completed 15 credit hours of nuclear engineering courses, 9 credit hours of minor courses, and 6 credit hours of masters project.