Program Educational Objectives
The undergraduate curriculum in petroleum and natural gas engineering has been designed to equip the student with the fundamentals necessary to achieve lifelong professional growth. Graduates are prepared to enter both the private and public sectors as petroleum and natural gas engineers or to pursue further education at the graduate level.
The courses are structured to serve as a melting pot for theory, application to case studies and engineering project design. This enables the student to appreciate and understand that a successful engineering design project requires a sound theoretical foundation, experimentation and engineering judgment. The thrust of the program structure emphasizes the fundamentals of mathematics and earth and engineering sciences and integrates them in application to traditional petroleum and natural gas engineering topics. Design projects are required throughout the curriculum. Execution of these projects requires an amalgamation of problem formulation strategies, testing of alternative design methodologies, feasibility studies, and economic and environmental considerations. Graduates of the program are expected to perform in various facets of the petroleum industry including drilling, production, evaluation, transportation and storage. The petroleum and natural gas engineering faculty and staff are committed to an interactive teaching and learning environment to ensure that the student is an active participant in the learning process. General education opportunities are sufficiently broad and diverse in scope to enable the student to tailor the educational experience to particular interests, background and expected role in society.
Integration of knowledge and skills acquired during the course of study enables the students/graduates of this program to do the following:
- solve petroleum and natural gas engineering process problems using knowledge of applied mathematics, science, and economics.
- acquire technical data, analyze them, and use them to design petroleum and natural gas engineering systems.
- integrate professional, ethical, social, and environmental considerations into petroleum and natural gas engineering design and problem solving.
- develop ability to communicate engineering results effectively and provide experience in team efforts; and acquire the habit of continuous learning to maintain technical competence and to keep abreast of contemporary issues.
ABET Accreditation
The Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering program is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, 111 Market Place, Suite 1050, Baltimore, MD 21202-4012, telephone: (410) 347-7700.