Graduate student program of Electrical Engineering based on Industry-University Cooperation

Abstract

This Innovative Practice Full Paper presents a novel educational approach to improve the quality of graduate engineering education by emphasizing real world project based learning, the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice technological developments, and a need for globalization. Aiming to address the challenges of educating engineers for the 21$^{\mathbf{st}}$ Century, authors developed a double degree graduate program based on industry-university cooperation. This program includes a multifaceted-industry-university cooperation system, assuring the central role for industry as the crucial component in education of graduate level engineering students. The applied strategies and adopted methods are presented and discussed. After two cohorts of graduate students have successfully completed the program, the outcomes indicate that implemented educational approach has attained desired results. According to the survey results, students benefited significantly from the program and are in high demand by industry. The experience of this industry-university cooperation program can be valuable to other engineering schools and programs.