Bridgewater College announced its undergraduate engineering major program which allows students to graduate with career-ready skills necessary for the fields of mechanical engineering, automation engineering and mechatronics, nuclear engineering, aerospace engineering and automotive design.

Bridgewater College will launch the engineering program in the fall of 2023. Students will have the opportunity to explore different aspects of engineering with hands-on experience with a college electronics laboratory, mechanical design and a 3-D printing lab.

The new major will be overseen by Associate Professor of Physics and Department Chair of Engineering and Physics Deva O’Neil. 

“BC students have been pursuing careers in engineering for many years by attending graduate programs in engineering or transferring to undergraduate engineering schools,” said O’Neil. “We have introduced a new engineering major so that students at BC will be able to pursue engineering careers with just a 4-year degree.”

Students in the new engineering program will have the option to have a concentration in mechatronic or mechanical engineering, which makes the program competitive with other institutions. 

“The new major also comes with two optional concentrations,” said O’Neil. “We are excited to offer this new opportunity to our students and expect that this will give our graduates highly sought-out skills for their future careers.”

For the past five years, engineering has been named among the top four career goals for Bridgewater students.

“An engineering program will bring excitement to a lot of physics majors or even chemistry majors that would want to take courses involving different types of engineering,” said Dean of the School of Natural Sciences and Professor of Physics Philip Spickler. “Even those students who just want to gain knowledge skills and work collaboratively with others to achieve shared goals and professional communication.”

With engineering being one of the top majors for university students across the United States, many professors believe the program at Bridgewater has the potential to be a popular area of study. 

“I believe with this program being offered in terms of students pursuing a bachelor of science degree, there will be more students leaning towards engineering because of how well-rounded the classes will be in readiness in preparing students for the workforce,” said Associate Professor of Chemistry Ian McNeil. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a huge number of engineering majors.”

Many professors within the natural sciences find that the addition of an engineering program will be a valuable and successful new program at the college. 

“I think adding an engineering program will be very important,” said Associate Professor of Chemistry Ellen Mitchell. “It allows students to complete a 4-year engineering program, gaining hands-on experience so when they are entering the workforce they go in with a lot of problem-solving and technical skills.”