www.union.edu/CT
Converging technologies permeate the Union curriculum. This list suggests some of the interdisciplinary subject areas that students at Union can explore. In each of these areas, students benefit from the close collaboration between engineering and the liberal arts that CT fosters at Union.
The minor in Bioengineering (approved in 2003) is designed for engineering, science, and non-science majors alike. Any student with an interest in interdisciplinary fields emerging at the intersection of the biology, computer science, and engineering may choose this minor. In addition to developing content knowledge and process skills in biology, engineering or a related science outside their major field, students will participate in a multidisciplinary core course in bioengineering. The minor will normally culminate with students joining a research project in bioengineering during their senior year. Students with an interest in biomedical engineering, environmental engineering, biotechnology, ecological or evolutionary biomechanics, neuroscience and environmental physiology may find this minor attractive.
Biology 240/Engineering Science 240: Introduction to Bioengineering This course is designed to introduce science and engineering students to the interdisciplinary field of bioengineering. Bioengineering has emerged at the intersection of the engineering and biological sciences. In this course, students will explore the application of engineering principles and analyses to the study of biological systems and seek to understand the potential benefits and constraints of engineered materials and devices in medical and environmental applications.
In September, 2005, the Digital Arts program, an interdisciplinary endeavor between the Visual Arts and Computer Science departments, got underway at Union College. In addition with new faculty and courses offered, a computer lab has been created at OLIN 102 with the generous assistance of Union College alumnus and trustee, John E. Kelly, III. The lab is comprised of the latest computer graphics hardware and software.
Visit the Digital Arts home page
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The ES program is designed for students with a strong interest in understanding and solving environmental problems. The program allows students the opportunity to explore areas of environmental policy, environmental science, and environmental engineering. Students will find this program useful if they enter environmental science or environmental management in the public and private sectors, teaching, business, politics, or law.
There are now two tracks in the Environmental Studies program: Environmental Policy and Environmental Science. Both require a number of core courses and then a specialty concentration of 5 courses, the senior seminar of one course, and a senior thesis or project of two courses.
In the Winter of 2004, the Economics Department at Union offered a new course, "The Mind of the Entrepreneur". This course, and some of the other efforts at Union to introduce students to Entrepreneurship, are featured in a recent article in the Union College Magazine. The article was entitled, "Build It, and They Will Come."
(Note the connection here to Union alum Phil Robinson, '71, who wrote and directed the movie Field of Dreams.)
Entrepreneurship provides a natural linkage between engineering and the liberal arts, and teaches a mindset among students that it is OK to pursue their passion.
The "Nanotechnology Now" online glossary defines Mechatronics this way: Mechatronics: the study of the melding of AI [artificial intelligence] and electromechanical machines to make machines that are greater than the sum of their parts.
Mechatronics is a design philosophy that encourages engineers to integrate precision mechanical engineering, digital and analog electronics, control theory, and computer engineering in the design of intelligent products, systems, and processes. The mechatronics approach shortens design cycles, lowers costs, and means elegant solutions to design problems that cannot easily be solved by staying within the bounds of the traditional engineering disciplines.
A starting point for students interested in mechatronics is Engineering Science 100: Introduction to Engineering and Mechatronics. This course is the starting point for all engineering majors at Union, and also counts for liberal arts students toward their General Education science requirement.
Nanotechnology is the new frontier of science and engineering likely to change the way almost everything -- from vaccines to computers to automobile tires to objects not yet imagined -- is designed and made. Union College's effort to strengthen its undergraduate program in Nanotechnology was recently (April 2003) recognized by the National Science Foundation with a grant in its Nanotechnology in Undergraduate Education (NUE) program.
The essence of nanotechnology is the ability to work at the level of atoms, molecules, and supramolecular structures to generate larger structures with fundamentally new molecular organization. These "nanostructures," made with building blocks understood from first principles, are the smallest human-made objects, and they exhibit novel physical, chemical, and biological properties and phenomena. Taking control of atoms and molecules -- the basic building blocks of all matter -- will result in a technology revolution.
Nanotechnology will be a strategic branch of science and engineering for the next century, one that will fundamentally restructure the technologies currently used for manufacturing, medicine, defense, energy production, environmental management, transportation, communication, computation, and education.
Union's new course, Frontiers of Nanotechnology ESC 224/CHM 224 could become part of a student's Organizing Theme major in materials science or nanotechnology, and is the core of a new Nanotechnology minor, established in 2005
The new major in Neuroscience (approved in 2004) is designed for students with interests that intersect the fields of Biology and Psychology. Neuroscience focuses on the relationships among brain function, cognitive processing and behavior. Researchers in this field come from widely disparate backgrounds, including cognitive psychologists, clinical neuropsychologists, basic neuroscientists or bio-psychologists, physicians, and computer scientists. Thus, research questions are considered from many different levels and many different converging methodologies are used.
The Neuroscience major currently consists of two tracks: the Bioscience track and the Cognitive track. The bioscience track focuses on the biological basis of neural development, function, and plasticity. Students will develop an understanding of the nervous system and its role in cognition, perception and action at the molecular, cellular and systems level. The cognitive track provides students with an understanding of how neural networks and brain mechanisms give rise to specific mental processes and behavior. Students begin with the processes that have been traditionally studied in the area of cognitive psychology, but can tailor the program to include processing that is traditionally studied in developmental or clinical psychology as well.
Pervasive computing refers to a family of technologies that allow mobile or diffuse access to networks and especially to the Internet. Its influence on many facets of our lives is increasingly significant as innovations in technology prompt modifications in ways people communicate and live. The program under development at Union establishes a footing for the intelligent study of the technical, social, and cultural dimensions of these new dynamics.
Students interested in the social and ethical aspects of computing should consider combining courses from the Department of Computer Science with some of the new courses developed by Union's Philosophy Department
New philosophy courses include (see the Philosophy website for course descriptions):
Science, Medicine and Technology in Culture , created in 2003, consists of a major and a minor. SMTC will appeal to science or engineering majors who want to place their interests in a social context by means of a minor; humanities or social sciences majors who want to include science, engineering, and their social consequences in their education; or students who want to study science and engineering at a meta-level (philosophy of science, sociology of science, history of science, etc.).
Both the SMTC major and minor provide a carefully balanced selection of courses from both the science/technology side of campus, and the humanities/social sciences side.
If you don't see a major you like, Union College welcomes you to create your own major, called an Organizing Theme. With its philosophy of expanding understanding by lowering barriers, Converging Technologies presents lots of opportunities to put together ideas from multiple disciplines, and focus them on one, unifying theme. Faculty at Union will be more than happy to help you identify the courses which can meet your interests and at the same time provide the depth of understanding required by a major. Here are just a few CT-related ideas, but we encourage your curiosity and imagination.
Here is how the Union College Catalog describes the OT major:
The Organizing Theme Major: The student with a well defined intellectual curiosity in a particular topic involving multiple disciplines may develop and request permission to pursue an "organizing theme" major. . The approved program, which must be filed with the registrar, shall consist of at least twelve courses related to the organizing theme and a senior project based upon the integration of knowledge and skills contributed by various courses in the major. . (page 5 in the 2003-04 College Catalog)
Last revised Febuary 28, 2006