The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Engineering hosts undergraduate degrees in the fields of Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering. Graduate degrees are also offered in multiple areas, including Biomedical Engineering.
As a college of engineering student reaches their senior year, they must choose a concentration. A concentration is a more specific area in their field of study, where the student is required to take classes in that concentration. For electrical engineering, the concentrations offered are control systems, computer engineering, and communications.
The UTSA College of Engineering puts a heavy emphasis on engineering science, and practical applications. Before graduation, an engineering student will have a firm foundation in not only the necessary mathematics, but also with computer applications that will be used in the engineering career field.
Student organizations
There are many student engineering organizations available to students. Some of the student branches of nationally known organizations are the IEEE (for electrical engineering students), ASME (for mechanical engineering students), ASCE (for civil engineering students), SWE (for women in engineering), Eta Kappa Nu for electrical engineering honors students and many more.
Student body
Electrical engineering students take up the larger portion of the engineering student body. Mechanical engineering students take up the second largest, and civil engineering students fill the rest of the undergraduate student body.
Research
Electrical Engineering
Electrical engineering faculty, funded by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, conduct research in high performance multi-media processors and in muscle control using electromyographic signals. Research on 3-D spot counting is conducted in partnership with the Texas Engineering Experimental Station and on robotics and sensor based control and prognosis of complex distributed systems with the National Science Foundation.
The department is also working extensively in the areas of cyber security and homeland defense. Reliable and secure voice and data communications are important in mission success and in providing assurances to the public. Electromagnetic wave analysis regarding fallout may become necessary after a physical attack. Computer information security, high-speed intrusion detection, problem identification, reliable high-speed network design and redundancy are all important for cyber attack prevention; and computer engineering faculty work with the Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security in these efforts. Target analysis and radar signature identification helps identify and track friends or foes.
Wireless communications that are hardened for recovery efforts are of great interest. An understanding of health physics is of particular importance in the case of nuclear and biological attack, and bio-MEMS (micro electromechanical systems) are used increasingly in health monitoring in such instances. Additionally, the doctoral program in Electrical Engineering focuses on communications, control, signal processing, and computers.[1]
Civil Engineering
Civil engineering faculty work with the Texas Department of Transportation to provide measures to improve truck safety, to develop methods and materials to accelerate construction and opening of PCC pavements, and to establish processes for equipment replacement. Additionally, transportation engineering and infrastructure management research allows for optimization and redundancy in transportation systems.
Working with the Center for Water Research, additional research into water quality and the more efficient use of water is being conducted. The new doctoral program in Environmental Science and Engineering emphasizes natural resources, and engineering faculty work with geologists, environmental scientists, chemists, and hydrogeologists. Research areas include environmental analysis, restoration, and water resource research focuses on recovery and remediation, especially in understanding the fate and transport of surface and groundwater pollutants.[2]
The future
A new engineering building is due to open in the spring of 2006, and should host new opportunities for engineering students. The current engineering building offers a computer lab, a microcomputer lab, and a lab with Sun Microsystems computers for a course in digital systems design.
The College of Engineering is an accredited university with the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology and has hopes of becoming a tier 1 research institution in the upcoming years.