Almost six years ago, our faculty held a series of retreats and developed a long-range vision and plan for our undergraduate educational opportunities. At that time we offered an undergraduate degree in engineering mechanics and astronautics and nuclear engineering. Our vision for the future indicated that new emerging technologies were on the horizon that transcended these two degrees and we needed to be part of their development in the college and the UW-Madison campus. The engineering mechanics degree is the oldest degree in the College of Engineering, actually pre-dating the formation of the college, having begun in 1887. The nuclear engineering degree is one of the newest degrees in the college, having begun in 1963. Our faculty view of the future suggested that we needed to offer an undergraduate degree with the same strong fundamentals in applied math and physics, along with the opportunity for students to learn about emerging technology areas with the flexibility to do team-oriented projects with design and research experiences. Thanks to our faculty leadership over the next five years, we were able to get the formal approvals from the college, UW-Madison and the UW-System for this new degree in engineering physics.

The new bachelor of science in engineering physics (BS-EP) is designed to provide graduates with highly developed skills in emerging technological areas. These graduates will become an immediate source of talent to accelerate development of high-tech, start-up companies in Wisconsin and throughout the United States. Initially the technological focus areas will be nanoengineering, plasma science and engineering, and scientific computation; the technological emphasis areas will be constantly revisited and revised to align with emerging technologies and student interests. It is our hope that the BS-EP program will be distinguished by the following integral, salient features: a strong emphasis on math and physics, delay in choice of a technical focus area to late in the junior year, specialized education in an emerging technology, and emphasis on research and a team project culminating in a senior thesis. This program is designed for the ever-changing economics and technologies of the 21st century.

The BS-EP curriculum has a strong emphasis in math, physics and engineering. A common curriculum with our engineering mechanics and nuclear engineering majors for the first two years of coursework provides a fundamental foundation. This rigorous curriculum will prepare students for the final two years of study with an emphasis on their choice of one of three technical focus area electives and team-focused activities aligned with current faculty research programs. Because students need to be academically strong and highly motivated to work effectively within the various emerging technology research groups, the BS in engineering physics degree program will be a selective one with a high GPA requirement: 3.5 for admission into the program during their sophomore year.

Our new program for a bachelor of science in engineering physics can be a perfect fit for emerging industries that design and manufacture devices at the micro- and nanometer scale; for example, precise and repeatable positioning technologies as well as the mechanics and materials selection for such devices. Many firms are entering the market as developers of fundamental tools than enable research and operations at the sub-micron level and are important to a variety of industries and applications ranging from semiconductor instrumentation to uses in defense and biotechnology. This undergraduate degree with its applied math and physics fundamentals and a specific focus area in nanoengineering gives the student a clear advantage in their engineering education.

Several aspects of our BS-EP degree indicate that such a program is quite valuable to the undergraduate student interested in emerging technologies:

• The emphasis on mathematics, physics, chemistry and computer science parallels the confluence of these same disciplines in nanoengineering, plasma physics and engineering as well as scientific computation;
• The requirements for R&D projects in the junior and senior years of the program develop the skills a commercial R&D/product development firm requires. Most small technology companies want every engineer to be able to contribute from day one, and we feel our program can be very beneficial in this regard;
• Selection of the best students for the program ensures that our graduates would be capable of operating in a world-class R&D team. High-technology companies need to be able to hire engineers that are innovative, broad-based and thus able to further product design and associated research and development.