Interdisciplinary Engineering
A customizable degree path offers a unique educational opportunity in the David Crawford School of Engineering. Create an experience which fits your interests and career goals, preparing you to be a dynamic engineer in the real world.
Why Norwich Interdisciplinary Engineering
A look inside the program with Program Coordinator Scott Smith, Ph.D
This is a program where students take their engineering ambitions and interests and combine them so they can focus their education on a career-specific field that inspires them. “We are able to create, basically, engineering fields,” says Program Coordinator Scott Smith, Ph.D. “There is no criminology engineering, but, the alphabet soup, as they call it in Washington, wants to hire engineers who have criminology understanding. The fact that we can combine those two is what’s so nice about the program.”
“If students come to me saying, ‘Hey, I want to do this type of engineering,’ we can see what kind of courses we need you to take to make sure we cover all the areas.”
“Interdisciplinary engineering is unique because it is designed so that if we don’t have a certain engineering program here, we will get you as close to that engineering program as we can with the courses that we offer at Norwich,” he says. “It’s about what you want to do when you graduate; let’s get you into that focus area.”
The engineering faculty, like Smith, are committed to finding the best path forward for each student on an individual level. “I have the requirements for different types of engineering printed out,” he says. “If students come to me saying, ‘Hey, I want to do this type of engineering,’ we can see what kind of courses we need you to take to make sure we cover all the areas.”
Read More
Program Coordinator Scott Smith Answers - How Does Interdisciplinary Engineering Expand Your Career Horizon?
Cross-pollination allows for students to gain combined experience in different fields that sets them up for success. “For example, think of it this way: you study engineering and architecture,” he says. “You’ve now been working in both fields, and you’ll be able to communicate with both sets of individuals pretty well. You’d be the perfect project manager to make sure the design process gets done on time because you can communicate effectively on both sides with your understanding of both fields.”
“Our interdisciplinary engineers are able to do things that graduates of top-ranking engineering schools do,”
Fortunately, Norwich students are exposed to real-world situations like the ones Smith mentions through experiential learning. “Some will have more labs than others, but it just depends on what they want to do in their focus area and what courses they would take,” he says. “But they would always still have projects where you need to apply what you’ve learned in the real world.”
“Our interdisciplinary engineers are able to do things that graduates of top-ranking engineering schools do,” he says. “If it’s between you, someone from MIT, Rice, or Stanford, you have the same education all while being more personalized because the teachers know who you are and work with you throughout your four years on campus.”
Smith sees the attention that students are able to get from faculty as a huge bonus, but also highlights the fact that students are entrenched and helping their peers. “Everything’s by the teacher outside of things like help sessions, which we have upperclassmen embedded tutors for,” he says. “You’re not just a number on a sheet of paper, you’re getting taught by the teacher and graded by the teacher.”
