Student to graduate from a joint program

Katie Schniebs is the first student to graduate from a joint program that Denton’s two universities established four years ago in an effort to cohesively combine the fields of mathematics and engineering.Like all good partnerships, Texas Woman’s University and University of North Texas officials are working to strengthen the bond.

Last week, Schniebs earned bachelor’s degrees from both TWU and UNT, university officials said.It’s exciting, and she’s moving on and has a job already,said Don Edwards, associate dean of TWU’s College of Arts and Sciences and math department chairman, adding that she is a very, very bright young lady.Schniebs was named TWU’s outstanding senior this year, and received a $40,000 scholarship and a summer internship with NASA last year.The universities established the joint program in 2007.

At that time, UNT was seeking support for its College of Engineering. TWU agreed to lend its support on the condition of creating a dual-degree program.It is funded by a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, which includes funding to provide scholarships to women and minorities.Students take classes at both campuses in order to earn a Bachelor of Science in math from TWU and an electrical engineering degree from UNT. The workload switches throughout some semesters require more course work at TWU and others require more course work at UNT.Now, the universities are working on offering additional degrees through the program.

Costas Tsatsoulis, dean of the UNT College of Engineering, said in a news release that expanding the program would give students more choices and would help attract more women into science, engineering and math.There are some other areas of engineering that might be attractive to students,Edwards said, giving examples such as mechanical engineering and material science.
He said the universities have a few more refinements to make before finalizing requirements on additions to the program.