Engineering is considered a high-growth industry and the TWU program would help address workforce needs, according to a news release. It is an industry where women make up only 16% of professionals.
“Employers are actively seeking women engineers, and we sit in a region rich with industry partners,” said Angela Bauer, the university’s executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. “A woman-focused learning environment, combined with natural synergies across our existing academic programs, gives TWU an opportunity no other institution in Texas can claim.”
The university has already taken steps to lay out a proposed curriculum that would include three elements:
- AI literacy, which prepares graduates for the AI components within engineering
- Leadership and technical skills
- Hands-on laboratory activities
“Most programs immerse students in math and science courses for two years before they touch real engineering problems,” Bauer said. “Ours would put them in the lab in their first semester, because students who build things early stay in the program, and they graduate as engineers who are comfortable making things work.”
