Undergraduate Programs Guide
Bachelor of Arts
Candidates for the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree with a concentration in Engineering must complete at least eight Engineering courses, including Engineering 0030, and at least two 1000-level Engineering courses, one of them being a design or independent study course and the other an in-classroom experience, plus one advanced level mathematics course equivalent to Applied Mathematics 0330. A prerequisite for this program is adequate preparation in freshman calculus. The sequential nature of Engineering courses requires that they be chosen to adequately prepare the student for the 1000-level courses selected. The set of Engineering courses should also be designed to concentrate in a particular Engineering discipline or area. The program must also include at least one college-level science course from the general areas of chemistry, life sciences, physics, materials science, or geological sciences. The selection of this course must be approved by the Engineering Concentration Committee. Remedial courses, such as Chemistry 0100, cannot be used to satisfy this requirement. A programming course is also recommended but not required. The program should be developed through consultation with an Engineering Faculty Advisor and is subject to final approval by the Engineering Concentration Committee.
Bachelor of Arts in Engineering with a focus in Environmental
This program is offered in cooperation with the Environmental Studies Program and is intended for students who want to prepare for positions and/or graduate programs in environmental policy, planning, and regulation. The first year should be generally similar to that of the Sc.B. in Engineering and preferably include ENVS 0110, Environmental Issues, which is the prerequisite for the other Environmental Studies courses. It is suggested that students interested in this option begin with careful planning of the curriculum in consultation with a Freshman Engineering advisor when they arrive for their first semester. Toward the end of the freshman year, the student should design the Engineering portion of the program so that it complies with the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree as described above. Recommendations for the two 1000-level engineering courses are ENGN 1130 and 1340. The program should be developed in consultation with an Engineering faculty advisor, and is subject to review by the Engineering Concentration Committee.
In addition to ENVS 0110, a minimum of three other courses should be selected from Environmental Studies courses, Biology and Medicine 0420, Geological Sciences 0220, and Applied Mathematics 1650, 1660. The Environmental Studies portion of the program should be prepared with the help of an Environmental Studies Faculty Advisor.
Students who have strong environmental interests, but who wish to pursue a regular Sc.B. concentration in Engineering (e.g. Civil or Chemical and Biochemical Engineering), are encouraged to take relevant environmental courses as electives. In particular, attention is called to Environmental Studies 0110, 0410, 0510, 1350 (or Economics 1350), 1410, 1920, BIOL 0420, 1490 (or Applied Mathematics 1070), and Geological Sciences 0580, 1580, 1710.
Bachelor of Arts in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship(COE)
The COE Program is a new multidisciplinary, multi-track undergraduate concentration in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship, offered for the first time in the fall of 2005. Sponsored by the Departments of Economics and Sociology, and the Division of Engineering, this concentration offers students a coordinated, integrated, and synergistic approach to teaching and learning about commerce, organizational theory, entrepreneurship, and technological innovation. COE places specific emphasis on the formation, growth, and organization of new ventures, innovation in commercial applications, financial markets and the marketplace, and management and organizational theory. Students will learn the methodological approaches of economics, sociology, engineering, and entrepreneurship to study for-profit and nonprofit enterprises in the national and global economic context.
Students focus their course of study on one of the following three tracks within the program:
• Business Economics
• Organizational Studies
• Entrepreneurship and Technology Management
The Division of Engineering is responsible for the Entrepreneurship and Technology Management track. Students who successfully complete this program in any of the three tracks will receive an A.B. degree in Commerce, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship.
Special Note: The Bachelor of Arts in COE is supplanting the current Bachelor of Arts in Engineering and Economics. Students currently enrolled in the Engineering and Economics Program will be allowed to finish.
The starting point for concentrators in the Technology Track of COE is Engineering 0030.
Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts
Students who wish to combine the study of engineering with study in the arts, humanities, or social sciences can arrange a five-year program leading to an Sc.B. in Engineering and an A.B. in a non-technical field. Such a program must meet all requirements for an Sc.B. degree in Engineering, as well as all requirements for an A.B. degree with concentration in the non-technical field. Normally, the first-year courses in such a program would include Engineering 0030 and 0040 and Mathematics 0190, 0200 (or 0090, 0100). The other courses usually taken by Sc.B. in Engineering students, such as Chemistry 33, would be postponed until the second year of study.
The program should be developed through consultation with an Engineering Faculty Advisor to be certain that proper attention is paid to the sequential nature of the Engineering curriculum in postponing various courses in order to spread the customary four-year Sc.B. in Engineering program over a five-year period.
Bachelor of Science an Master of Science in Engineering
Undergraduates in Engineering with high academic standing may enter an integrated program leading to the award of a Master of Science degree at the end of the academic year following receipt of the Bachelor of Science degree. They will also normally include, in their senior year, courses designated as “Primarily for Graduates” in the Brown University Bulletin. During the fifth year, the student in the integrated program can achieve an unusually strong academic program for the Master of Science degree. Work toward the doctorate, for those so inclined and qualified, would be facilitated by this program. The Master of Science degree granted under this program is available as either the thesis or non-thesis option. General requirements for the Master of Science degree are given in the Brown University Bulletin.
Undergraduate Teacher Education Program
For students interested in a career in education, the Division of Engineering and Department of Education has established an Undergraduate Teacher Education Program for students concentrating in any of the engineering disciplines (A.B. or Sc.B.). Graduates are certified by the State of Rhode Island to enter careers as primary or secondary school science teachers. The graduates of the program are uniquely qualified to teach science in an engaging, technology-based and application-oriented setting. The program builds on the strong commitment of the engineering faculty students to outreach programs in K-12 education.
The program is not a concentration program. Students graduate with an engineering degree, but must also take the following courses from the Education Department in addition to their engineering requirements:
• EDUC 0900: Field work and seminar in High School Education
• One Education Foundations course.
• EDUC 1450: Psychology of Teaching
• EDUC 2060: Methods of Teaching (summer between semester VI and VII) - includes practice teaching
• EDUC 1070: Student Teaching
• EDUC 1080: Analysis of Teaching seminar
The engineering courses for the Teacher Education Program must include ENGN 0510, Electricity and Magnetism, and Physics 0790, the Physics of Matter.
Students interested in the program formally apply during the fall of their Junior year, but are encouraged to speak with Professor J. Blume as early as possible during their Brown career. Websites for more information:
http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Education/te_utep.php
Students Interested in Architecture
Students contemplating the possibility of pursuing a degree in architecture after finishing their undergraduate program at Brown can prepare themselves by taking selected courses in Visual Arts, Engineering, and History of Art and Architecture at Brown, as well as certain courses at RISD. A foundation in structural analysis and design can be obtained by taking the following sequence of courses in Engineering: 0030, 0310, 1300, 1380. (It is noted that the upper level courses carry a mathematics prerequisite through Applied Mathematics 0340.) Additional Engineering courses of interest are: Engineering 0040, 0410, 0720, 0810, 1360, 1740.
Since the pre-architecture program is not one of the standard engineering concentrations, it can be quite flexible. It can be pursued as part of one of the standard Engineering Sc.B. programs (most typically Civil Engineering), as an Engineering A.B. program, and even as a non-engineering concentration, as long as proper attention is paid to fulfilling the prerequisites for the courses involved. Students interested in formulating a pre-architecture program are strongly encouraged to consult the pre-architecture advisor in Engineering, Professor Clifton.
