MSU new member of engineering education consortium

Mississippi State is joining an elite university consortium focusing on engineering education.

MSU now is a member of SUCCEED, the Southeastern University and College Coalition for Engineering Education.

SUCCEED works to revitalize undergraduate engineering education for the 21st century. Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, and Florida are among the original member universities in the National Science Foundation-funded coalition.

Joining MSU in the new-member category are the University of Central Florida, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, University of Louisville, and Virginia Commonwealth University, among others.

The use of computers in undergraduate education and the recruitment and retention of women and minorities in engi\neering programs are among two specific areas the consortium currently is addressing.

The organization's goals are easily compatible with those of MSU's College of Engineering, said Dean A. Wayne Bennett.

"The most important of those goals is to train a new type of engineer with the strengths of the traditional engineering specialist plus the ability to use cross-functional team approaches to problem solving and product development and production," Bennett said.