New Program Offers Best of Both Worlds

For David Foelber ’05, it made perfect sense. Taking the technical side of engineering and combining it with project management know-how of business administration was exactly what he was seeking.

Foelber found it with the master’s of engineering management program housed in Valparaiso University’s College of Business Administration.

“I have always been very interested in how a product can be uniquely engineered and maintain successful market share,” Foelber says. “I became very interested while working in engineering about the existing gap between engineering, management and projects.”

The program was launched in the fall of 2006. Foelber and Erin Swanson ’06 both graduated from Valpo with mechanical engineering degrees. They are among the eight students enrolled in the new program.

One of their assignments has been to assist one of the College of Engineering senior design teams.

“I believe this degree will allow me to advance in an engineering career,” Swanson says, “and also give me the skills to lead my own business venture in the long term.”

Foelber says, “It has been so refreshing to see the ‘business’ side of engineering and how the two must relate.”

That’s exactly what VU College of Engineering professor Doug Tougaw, who graduated from Valpo’s master’s of business administration program in 2005, wants to hear. The program was marketed last spring after alumni suggested integrating the business and engineering curriculums.

“We listened to alumni and have created a program that will complement their engineering degrees,” Tougaw says.

For more information, call 219.465.7952.