December 6, 2000

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A new program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham is the first in the country to respond to the growing demand for individuals with information engineering as well as real information management skills.

The new two-year Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) in the UAB School of Engineering is patterned after the highly successful Executive MBA program offered at many universities for working professionals who need to earn a master’s degree while working full time. The MSEE program offers an accelerated program structured around work hours and heavy in the areas most identified as lacking by industry leaders, said program coordinator Dale Callahan, Ph.D. The program was developed with input from IT experts at General Motors, Bell Atlantic, Andersen Consulting and EDS.

“Industry is telling us that not only are there 190,000 unfilled information technology jobs — everything from computer programmers and analysts to networking specialists — there is a shortage of qualified chief information officers within the available talent pool,” Callahan said.

“There are a lot of lot of sharp technical people in the field, but when they are put into upper level positions, they may not know how to run a business. They don’t always make good business decisions. And while there are a lot of excellent managers out there, they don’t have the depth of engineering necessary to deliver successfully. It’s this gap identified by industry that we are filling.”

The program completes in two years and like an EMBA program, participants must enter and graduate with their classmates — no dropping out for a term as in a traditional master’s program. The class meets for one full week in the summer. During the regular academic year, the program meets on Friday and Saturday one weekend a month. The first class began this past July and will graduate in May 2002.

An engineering undergraduate degree is not a prerequisite for the program, but those without it do best if they have on-the-job experience in a technical field, Callahan said. The program, designed with industry input, is proving very popular with employers.

“We are looking for qualified applicants who are working in this industry, managing information technology,” Callahan said. “We have some students with engineering degrees. Other students have undergraduate and graduate degrees in business, yet have been working in the industry long enough to have garnered a real understanding and grounding in technology. Our best candidates have a degree in science, math, computer science, engineering or management information systems.”

Faculty come from both the UAB School of Engineering and upper level industry management. The program is comprised of 10 courses and a master’s degree project. The courses range from highly technical software, networking and hardware course to management courses.

“We are hitting all the industry hot buttons,” Callahan said. “The response has been tremendous. We have 35 slots for the next class, which will begin in July, and we expect far more applications than we can take.”

For more information about the Master’s of Science in Electrical Engineering, log onto www.uab.edu/engineering/iem/.