Soldier to Engineer: Planning VCU's Pathway

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). This engineering education research award to Virginia Commonwealth University will employ researchers to design a system for evaluating military training, coursework and occupational specialty in efforts to reduce the number of additional credits needed to complete an undergraduate degree in one of its six programs. This project aims to reduce the time to degree by working with service branches to identify equivalency credits for on-the-job training and military courses with corresponding engineering courses. As such, it will be a tremendous asset to all of the approximately 360 engineering schools and the almost 2 million post 9/11 veterans. The processes and equivalencies to be identified could well become readymade programs that will serve as a model for other institutions. Many veterans have specialized training and experience with the practical application of a wide array of technologies. However most colleges of engineering are not well positioned to recruit and retain this unique cohort. This project is expected to change this state of affairs by developing processes that transform the engineering curricula into a more plausible pathway for veterans. The results will advance understanding of how to modify the engineering education pipeline to allow veterans to enter and efficiently progress through the program so that they can fill engineering jobs.