New High-Tech Degree Targets High-Demand Careers
(Image courtesy of the University of Evansville)
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe University of Evansville is launching a degree that Computer Science Associate Professor Don Roberts says will feed an industry in high demand. He will lead the new software engineering program and says it will provide a more practical approach than the school’s existing, more traditional computer science curriculum. Roberts says graduates in the field have a nearly 100 percent job placement rate.
He tells Inside INdiana Business several local, high-tech employers "have complained that we don’t graduate enough people for them to hire."
The program will begin next fall and will feed careers that involve developing programs including operating systems, computer games, middleware, business applications and network control systems. "This is a cutting-edge degree, and software engineers are in high demand," says Roberts. "You may immediately think of software engineers as designing apps – like Angry Birds – but they do much more, and the curriculum we’ve designed will prepare students for a wide range of career options."
Roberts says UE graduates typically come from within the state and region and a lot of them want to they stay here, so computer science and software engineering degrees at the school are "pretty much a direct pipeline into the local tech industry, more so than, say, the Silicon Valley or something like that."
The announcement coincides with a $1 million gift detailed in September to support new equipment and programs within the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UE.