Mechanical Engineers Partner with Stevens' Online Courses
Stevens Institute of Technology and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME International), one of the world's principal engineering organizations, have agreed to co-sponsor online graduate programs for ASME members through WebCampus.Stevens, the unit that delivers the Institute's e-learning courses.
The agreement is one of the first that ASME, a 125,000-member organization, has signed with a university to deliver online classes to its members.
Founded in 1880, the ASME conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds technical conferences and offers professional development courses for its members, and sets many industrial and manufacturing standards.
"ASME and Stevens have come full circle," said WebCampus Director Robert Ubell. "ASME was founded at Stevens in the spring of 1880." Ubell finalized the agreement with ASME in January.
A recently published history of Stevens relates the story of ASME's founding: "On the morning of April 7, 1880, some 80 of the most prestigious American engineers arrived in Hoboken .. They entered the gas-lit Stevens Institute auditorium to attend the organizational meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the first professional society for mechanical engineers ." [From History of Stevens Institute of Technology by Stevens history professor Geoffrey W. Clark, Jensen/Daniels Publishers, 2000). Robert Henry Thurston, a professor of mechanical engineering at Stevens during that era, served as ASME's first president from 1880-82. Thurston is known for having established the first model mechanical engineering curriculum and laboratory.
This new agreement with ASME is the second Stevens has signed with a giant professional organization in a year. WebCampus.Stevens began offering online graduate-level courses worldwide last spring. Shortly afterwards, Stevens concluded an agreement with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), considered the world's largest technical society with about 330,000 members, to co-sponsor WebCampus online courses.
"Our aim is to deliver graduate engineering e-courses to working professionals everywhere," said Stevens School of Engineering Dean Bernard Gallois. "These co-sponsorships open Stevens' quality curriculum and faculty to engineers from two of the world's highest-ranking professional societies."
In February, WebCampus.Stevens, will offer eight online courses, including two new offerings, to students worldwide - some as far away as Kenya, Hong Kong and Norway. Web courses began just a year ago with three courses. With classes being introduced this spring, WebCampus will have had nearly 200 online student enrollments. The program delivers graduate courses in engineering, computer science, management, and teacher education. WebCampus.Stevens can be found online at webcampus.stevens.edu.
More information about ASME is available at its web site: www.asme.org.
About Stevens Institute of Technology
Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University TM , lives at the intersection of industry, academics and research. The University's students, faculty and partners leverage their collective real-world experience and culture of innovation, research and entrepreneurship to confront global challenges in engineering, science, systems and technology management.
Based in Hoboken, N.J. and with a location in Washington, D.C., Stevens offers baccalaureate, master’s, certificates and doctoral degrees in engineering, the sciences and management, in addition to baccalaureate degrees in business and liberal arts. Stevens has been recognized by both the US Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security as a National Center of Excellence in the areas of systems engineering and port security research. The University has a total enrollment of more than 2,200 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with almost 450 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America as well as strategic partnerships with industry leaders, governments and other universities around the world. Additional information may be obtained at www.stevens.edu and www.stevens.edu/press.
