Rolling Off Its First Ph.D.

ASEE Prism, Nov 2006 by Grose, Thomas K

ENGINEERING EDUCATION

IN 2004, Purdue University created the nation's first department of engineering education. In 2005, it established the first engineering-education degree program. This year, it granted the country's first doctoral degree in engineering education. The recipient: Tamara Moore, of Indianapolis. Purdue's program prepares students to pursue careers in academia, business, government or foundations. Moore, whose earlier degrees were in math, has accepted an assistant professorship in mathematics at the University of Minnesota's College of Education. "Engineering education is in its infancy right now," Moore says. "I felt having an expertise in both math and engineering would make me more marketable." She hopes, as well, to encourage students who are planning to teach at the preschool- to 12th-grade level to incorporate more engineering concepts in their classrooms. "If someone asked me what an engineer does when I was 14 years old, I would not have known the answer. That is something I want to help change." -TG