Director's Message

Welcome to the U.A. Whitaker School of Engineering (WSOE), one of the newest academic units at Florida Gulf Coast University. The WSOE has grown quickly since it began with three B.S. degrees (Bioengineering, Civil Engineering, and Environmental Engineering) in 2005 and now has over 500 students, including those pursuing the B.S. in Computer Science. Not only have we developed new academic programs, but we have also constructed a 70,000 square foot, 4-story, state-of-the-art building, Holmes Hall, that opened for engineering and computer science classes and celebrated its Grand Opening in January. Holmes Hall, named in honor of Dr. G. Burtt Holmes and Dr. Ruth Whitaker Holmes, is located near the campus entrance, next to and linked to Lutgert Hall, the home of the Lutgert College of Business, which is the academic home for the WSOE. These buildings are connected to encourage collaborations across business, engineering, and computing by providing a space where faculty, students, and staff from all three disciplines can meet. The exceptional faculty of the WSOE are committed to excellence in education, recognize the importance of accreditation as one measure of excellence, and are actively working to achieve this milestone for the engineering programs through the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, Inc. (ABET). Since ABET requires programs to have graduated at least one student before applying for an accreditation visit and the first engineering students graduated in May 2009, the ABET accreditation visit will be scheduled for fall of the same year. We expect these 21st century WSOE graduates to have superior technical competence and business skills so that they can become community leaders and help meet the engineering and computing challenges of Southwest Florida and beyond. We will accomplish this with an entrepreneurial and innovative educational environment that values diversity, service, integrity, leadership, and collaborations.

Dr. Susan Blanchard