Senior Nate Bettibone (left): and junior Chris Nau (right), mechanical engineering students and members of the Formula SAE team, work on a car in an on-campus shop. Lindsey Davidson / PHOTO EDITOR
Auburn’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is now offering an automotive engineering minor.
The curriculum is designed for students interested in pursuing a career in Alabama’s growing automotive manufacturing industry.
The 15 credit-hour minor is a joint effort between the Industrial and Mechanical Engineering programs.
The program was approved and became an official minor almost one year ago, but most of the classes were being taught before that.
According to Dr. John Evans, associate professor in Industrial and Systems Engineering, almost half of all the industrial engineering students end up working in the automotive industry. He said the program aims to prepare students for this career.
“We are trying to offer classes that can make students more than just a mechanical, electrical or industrial engineer, but one that has specific knowledge and skills related to automotive,” Evans said.
Classes include engine design, vehicle design and vehicle dynamics in mechanical engineering.
Industrial engineering covers auto manufacturing, lean production and vehicle technology.
New courses will be added later.
“The Auburn engineering program has been working for a long time with automotive,” Evans said. “The change is this: what we are seeing here in the Southeast is one of the largest expansions of automotive manufacturing since the creation of the car.”
According to the Alabama Automotive Manufacturing Association, the automotive industry has invested over $7 billion and created more than 35,000 new jobs in Alabama.
In the last 15 years, Alabama has become home to several automotive manufacturing plants.
Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Hyundai chose Alabama for establishing their first plants in North America.
International Diesel has an engine building plant in Alabama.
Since 2006, Honda has made Alabama its sole production source for the Odyssey van and Pilot sport utility vehicle.
“The automotive industry in the state and around the state is primarily manufacturing,” said Peter Jones, associate professor in mechanical engineering.
“The industrial engineering courses are oriented towards manufacturing, so they are direct training,” Jones said. “The industrials are doing a better job of targeting specific job skills, and the mechanicals are providing a background and understanding of the physics and behavior of the machine that is being manufactured.”
The minor is best suited for Industrial and Mechanical Engineering majors.
However, anyone in the College of Engineering can complete the required coursework.
Jones said employers in the automotive industry are interested in hiring people who completed the minor because those students have the required job skills.
By getting the minor, they made a commitment to work in the industry.
“Those students stayed for 15 extra semester hours, and they’ve made it really clear that this was something that they are interested in,” Jones said.
Jacob Young, a senior in mechanical engineering, plans to work in the automotive industry after graduation.
He is finishing his third co-op semester with Mercedes-Benz in Tuscaloosa and is working towards an automotive minor.
“I definitely think that having the minor will catch their eye on a resume and help me land a job,” Young said. “It puts me one step above everybody else that just got a regular mechanical degree.”
Mechanical engineering previously had a program for earning a certificate in automotive engineering.
The new minor takes that program and adds industrial engineering courses to make an official program.
The Center for Advanced Vehicle Electronics (CAVE) has been in operation since 1999 and provides a background for the automotive curriculum.
CAVE works with the automotive industry to develop electronics. The CAVE program has extensive test facilities on campus. The facilities include mechanical, electrical and industrial engineering and physics.
“We do a large amount of this kind of research work, including things that have gone into production of cars and have been doing this since 1999, so there is some history there,” Evans said.
Evans is confident that the new minor will benefit students as they join the work force.
“On the education side, we are just trying to give them a more practical education option for people who want to go into this field. Automotive can be really challenging to work in, but it also can be a lot of fun,” Evans said.
The earliest graduates with the minor will be fall 2009.
