According to the National Science Board (NSB), which publishes a report every two years on trends in science and technology, the demand for technically skilled workers is expected to rise dramatically in the next five years while the number of citizens pursuing an education in science and engineering will, at best, remain level. The consequential gap has created an “Emerging and Critical Problem of the Science and Engineering Labor Force,” according to NSB. This means our work educating engineers has become vital for national competitiveness.

In response to this challenge, administrators and faculty at the UH Cullen College of Engineering are improving undergraduate student retention and strengthening the college’s productivity, a move that will ultimately provide the labor force with more, and better trained engineers. At the core of the college’s attempt to boost retention is the wildly successful Program for Mastery in Engineering Studies (PROMES), the brainchild of Gerhard Paskusz, professor of electrical and computer engineering. The program has become a benchmark for success, and has helped open the door to a recent acquisition of millions of dollars in grant awards designed to help more UH students become successful engineers.

The college has made dramatic recent improvements by adding a new career center, doubling the number of computers available to students, creating new internship and scholarship opportunities, launching programs to enhance the students’ business leadership skills and technical communications skills, and by creating camps and workshops designed to prepare students to be successful in the toughest courses in the engineering curriculum.

The result: Today, the college is doing more than ever before to enhance the undergraduate student experience and deliver polished, professional engineers for the country’s engineering work force.