FAMU—FSU College of Engineering

The College occupies over 200,000 sq. ft. of classroom, office and laboratory space in a building complex especially designed for engineering education. It is located off the main campus of each university in an area adjacent to Innovation Park, which also houses the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, the Center for Advanced Power Systems, the High Performance Materials Institute, and other university, public and private organizations engaged in research, development and clean industry operations.

Each department of the college operates specialized laboratories for teaching and research that are listed in the description of its programs.

The College operates for the common use of all programs a computing facility, a library and reading room, and a machine shop.

Library

The main book and journal collections for engineering are housed in the Dirac Science Library at The Florida State University and in the Coleman Library at Florida A&M University. The College also maintains an engineering library resource and reading room (sometimes referred to simply as engineering reading room or college library) that functions as a satellite to the two university libraries relative to engineering needs. Collections at the college library include monographs, texts and reference works that directly support instruction and research at the college. Library computer facilities enable extensive electronic literature search throughout the university libraries and other sources. Library services include literature search training sessions for students and faculty. The college library is headed by a full time librarian who is also a staff member of one of the two university libraries. Other college library personnel include assistants supported by the college.

Computing Facilities

Students have access to various computing resources at the College of Engineering. Due to the unique requirements of engineering computing and the off-campus location of the college, the college is relatively autonomous in providing service to engineering students.

The college has over 2000 computing devices connected to its local network, managed by the college's Communication and Multimedia Services (CMS) unit. Computers connect to the college's network via 1Gbps and 100Mbps Ethernet connections.

Over 200 high-end Intel-compatible workstations are provided for general student use. These computers are housed in four labs: one of the computer labs is open 24 hours a day when classes are in session, while the other three are used primarily as classrooms. The college also provides workstations in public areas that are available to students 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

A cluster of Sun servers backed by a Storage Area Network, as well as a number of independent Solaris, Windows and Linux server platforms, provide a range of computing services to the college user community.

CMS continues to evaluate and upgrade computer capabilities as computational needs grow. Additionally, both universities provide on-campus facilities that are available to all students.

To support the instructional and research missions of the college, a variety of software packages is provided, including major general-purpose packages as well as special applications oriented toward particular disciplines.

The college's research labs contain dozens of computational systems to provide enhanced research capabilities including complex number crunching for simulations. College researchers also take advantage of shared computational clusters located at the college and at each university.

The college's computing infrastructure uses high-end core router/switches interconnected to edge switching via gigabit fiber. The college Internet connection is a gigabit link connecting through the Florida State University backbone (Florida State University acts as the Internet services provider for the college) allowing for fast access to the Internet2 and the new LambdaRail network. Florida A&M University's computing facilities also are connected to the Tallahassee MAN, thus providing a link to the college for its students.

In addition to the local wired network, the college provides wireless LAN services throughout the facility for students who may want to use their own laptops to connect to the college's computing resources.

The college has state-of-the-art instructional classrooms. The multimedia equipment in every classroom generally includes LCD projector, overhead projector and/or document camera, VCR, and sound system. The ceiling-mounted LCD projector is used for large-scale projection, linked to the PC at the instructor's console.

Multiple rooms are used for distance learning and the Florida Engineering Education Delivery System (FEEDS); these rooms have two studio cameras and one document camera connected to a desktop PC with a scan converter to display Web pages. A two-way videoconferencing link to the FSU-Panama City campus provides distance delivery of classes to those students, and distance-learning collaborations with other universities are frequent. Live and recorded programs, classes, and events are streamed via the Internet to authorized viewers. Multi-point IP videoconferencing is also available.

The college participates in several research centers, both within the college and in cooperation with other departments, intended to foster learning opportunities for students and research advancement by noted faculty. They include the Center for Advanced Power Systems (electrical and mechanical engineering), the Center for Intelligent Systems, Control and Robotics (mechanical and chemical engineering), the Center for Materials Research and Technology (physics), the High Performance Materials Institute (industrial engineering), the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Institute (physics), the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (industrial engineering), the Institute of Transportation Technologies (civil engineering), the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (mechanical engineering and physics), and the Florida Center for Advanced Aero Propulsion (mechanical engineering), . Other specialized laboratories are included in the various departmental listings.

A large number of graduate students in the College of Engineering are supported through department teaching or research assistantships. University fellowships are available for exceptionally qualified students. In addition, tuition waivers for graduate assistants and fellows are available on a competitive basis. Students should contact the department of their proposed major regarding financial support.

The departments of Chemical and Biomedical, Civil and Environmental, Electrical and Computer, Industrial and Manufacturing, and Mechanical Engineering offer both thesis and non-thesis programs for the Master of Science degree. The thesis-based programs are designed to provide the student with advanced course work and experience in the chosen engineering discipline. The non-thesis programs are designed to provide the student with a strong technical education with less emphasis on research. The thesis programs are appropriate for a student who plans to engage in research or to continue graduate studies for the doctoral degree. Candidates for the master's degree must satisfy all regulations and requirements of the department in which they enroll.. Several departments in the College also participate in an Interdisciplinary Master of Science program in Materials. For additional departmental requirements consult the degree requirements under each department

The doctor of philosophy degree is awarded after the student satisfies all requirements of the University, the College and the department, respectively. This degree is offered in biomedical, chemical, civil, electrical, industrial, and mechanical engineering.

A candidate must meet the following minimum criteria to be considered for admission into the graduate program:

1.  1. A Bachelor of Science degree in engineering or a closely allied field from an accredited institution of higher learning;
2.  2. A grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or better on a 4.0 scale on all work while registered as an upper-division student;
3.  3. A score of at least 1000 on the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), quantitative and verbal portions combined. All candidates must submit official exam scores prior to being admitted as a regular graduate student;
4.  4. A minimum of 550 on the TOEFL examination (for international students only); and
5.  5.  Satisfy any admission requirements of the department.

For further details on graduate or research programs, contact the Graduate School at (850) 410-6423 or by e-mail at studentsupport@eng.fsu.edu. The college also maintains a web site at http://www.eng.fsu.edu with detailed information on all its graduate programs.