Clemson University to launch nation’s first Bachelor of Science program in automotive engineering

Clemson College is launching the nation’s 1st undergraduate Bachelor of Science software in automotive engineering to fulfill the fast changing requires of an business that is starting up to trade the internal combustion engine for batteries and human drivers for self-driving autos.
The new application solidifies Clemson’s position as the premier College for automotive engineering research and training in the Southeast and further than and adds to the offerings at its award-winning Greenville campus, the Clemson University Worldwide Middle for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR).
The degree program’s creators expect it will help satisfy significant need for a new breed of automotive engineer to lead the design and manufacture of cars and vehicles that are swiftly turning into desktops on wheels driven by electrical power.
“Clemson University will go on to direct the way for automotive engineering,” said President Jim Clements. “We are at the coronary heart of the Southeast’s auto field, and as South Carolina’s top provider of engineering talent, Clemson is uniquely positioned to launch the nation’s initial Bachelor of Science degree in automotive engineering. By doing the job in tandem with industry, point out and federal associates, we are equipped to form the long run of mobility and create a robust workforce.”
Students can assume an interdisciplinary curriculum with a robust experiential discovering part that is aimed at getting ready them for the upcoming of automotive production with an emphasis on slicing-edge technologies ranging from electrical motor vehicles, sophisticated supplies, highly developed production and semiconductors to e-hailing, artificial intelligence and autonomous automobile computer software.
The program’s creators count on it to start with as several as 30 students in drop 2023 and develop to over 200 by drop 2027.
Undergraduates majoring in automotive engineering will be primarily based on the primary campus for their initial two a long time, supplying them the chance to immerse by themselves in the full Clemson Experience, together with cheering on the Tigers soccer workforce in Memorial Stadium, swimming in Lake Hartwell and taking in ice product at the ’55 Exchange.
For their final two yrs, pupils will shift to CU-ICAR, a campus that is household to Clemson’s automotive engineering faculty and graduate application. On the campus, they will be in a position to just take total gain of the special experimental amenities and the skills situated there.
A bus assistance previously in location connects CU-ICAR to the key campus 45 minutes absent.
Clemson launched its graduate method in automotive engineering in 2006 and was the very first college in the nation to graduate a Ph.D. scholar in automotive engineering and the to start with to graduate a lady with a Ph.D. in automotive engineering.
Zoran Filipi, founding director of the University of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering, said Clemson will construct on expertise and infrastructure currently in put to develop the undergraduate method.
“Some of the world’s top assumed leaders and most inventive innovators in automotive engineering are on the faculty in the Faculty of Mechanical and Automotive Engineering,” Filipi reported. “We provide reducing-edge facilities, impactful discovering experiences and chances to collaborate intently with sector partners. Clemson is uniquely positioned to lead in automotive engineering at equally the graduate and undergraduate concentrations.”
Clemson also has a exclusive geographic gain that aids situation the College to offer the software. The automobile industry in South Carolina employs 74,000 and has an financial impression of $27 billion, in accordance to the condition Office of Commerce.
The broader Southeast region is house to a growing amount of Authentic Equipment Makers. Inside of 500 miles of Clemson, the group features BMW, Volvo, Proterrra, Mercedes-Benz Vans, Honda, Tesla, Ford, Common Motors, Toyota, Mazda, Nissan and Kia. Each and every provides a community of suppliers that also generate employment.
The change to autonomous and electric powered cars could build as a lot of as 115,000 more U.S. automotive and mobility sector work in the coming ten years, such as 45,000 for mobility engineers on your own, in accordance to a 2019 report by Boston Consulting Team.
Numerous latest investments that are assisting build people employment in South Carolina had been outlined in Gov. Henry McMaster’s Jan. 25 Point out of the State deal with.
To identify a couple of illustrations:
* Redwood Components will devote $3.5 billion for a new battery resources recycling facility, the single major announcement in the history of South Carolina.
* BMW is investing $1 billion to put together its Spartanburg plant to generate electric autos and $700 million to establish a new, higher-voltage battery assembly facility.
* Bosch programs to invest $200 million in Anderson County to generate the company’s initially production procedure of gas mobile technologies in the United States and yet another $260 million as Bosch launches production of electrical motors in Dorchester County to assistance the U.S. market place demand from customers for electrified cars.
All those a few investments on your own are anticipated to develop 2,500 positions.
Laine Mears, chair of the Office of Automotive Engineering, mentioned need for automotive engineers is soaring.
“The entire global automotive business is turning on a dime, and Clemson is stepping up to take the direct to satisfy industry’s shifting needs for both equally technological know-how and workforce,” he claimed. “The new undergraduate degree will be a definitely integrative plan that brings collectively expertise from across a spectrum of disciplines, making ready learners for the problems of the future.”
Pupils will start out with a Normal Engineering curriculum that consists of calculus, physics and other foundational courses expected of engineering majors at Clemson. Immediately after their very first year, pupils will be suitable to start having automotive engineering classes.
By their senior yr, learners will be all set to get the job done on Deep Orange prototype autos as capstone jobs.
Individuals who comprehensive the undergraduate application will acquire a Bachelor of Science in automotive engineering. Pupils who come to a decision to be a part of the 1st cohort are at present in their to start with 12 months in university and would be on track to graduate in 2026.
Srikanth Pilla, the ExxonMobil Employees Endowed Chair and Professor of Automotive Engineering, led the progress of the curriculum for the new undergraduate system.
“While the new degree method was produced in an automotive context, the curriculum has been created broadly plenty of that impactful activities will reach significantly past the vehicle, and learners will be perfectly-skilled for a amount of careers in the mobility and technology workforces,” said Pilla, who is also the founding director of Goal for Composites Electricity Frontier Research Middle and the Clemson Composites Heart.
“Employers could array from car or truck and aerospace organizations to the U.S. Military and program businesses these kinds of as Google, Apple and Meta. This is a sturdy curriculum crammed with arms-on discovering experiences aimed at planning pupils to make a contribution on working day one of their professions.”
The undergraduate diploma provides to a expanding checklist of marquee systems at CU-ICAR that include things like:
* A graduate plan that has graduated 791 master’s learners and 100 Ph.D. learners, with almost all acquiring work opportunities in the automotive sector or academia
* Deep Orange, a method that provides learners a opportunity to design and style and build a prototype car or truck, mirroring the knowledge of performing at an initial products company or supplier
* Digital Prototyping of Autonomy-Enabled Ground Units (VIPR-GS), an group that is part of a research partnership aimed at establishing impressive virtual prototyping equipment to design the subsequent technology of autonomy-enabled, on- and off-highway vehicles, with the U.S. authorities committing up to $100 million
* Intention for Composites, an Strength Frontier Study Middle that is advancing how composite resources are made by synthetic intelligence and inverse engineering
Clemson’s new undergraduate method will vary from automotive specialties in standard departments and automotive. When technological innovation applications focus on production, regimen design and style, building and conclude functions, Clemson is heading past the specialized demands by developing an automotive engineering diploma that will target on highly developed layout, enhancement and technical administration of the automobile realization procedure.
Anand Gramopadhye, dean of the School of Engineering, Computing and Utilized Sciences, said Clemson’s new undergraduate degree application will assist satisfy workforce requires for the increasing automotive field.
“This multidisciplinary plan provides with each other best talent, chopping-edge services and impactful encounters to generate the leaders, innovators and business owners of the long term,” he explained. “By building the future workforce, the plan will support improve the automotive market in South Carolina and the broader Southeastern region. I thank the team that created the new method and congratulate its customers on a position well performed.”
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