JHU Graduate Program in Engineering and Applied Sciences
APL collaborates with the JHU Whiting School of Engineering to sponsor the Engineering for Professionals (EP) program. The EP program offers graduate courses leading to master’s degrees, graduate certificates, and post-master’s certificates in 15 different engineering and applied science fields. To accommodate full-time working professionals, classes are offered on weekday evenings and Saturdays at APL, at a growing number of sites in the Baltimore/Washington metro area, and increasingly online. Courses are designed to meet the needs of both students and employers, with new programs created in collaboration with local industry to keep pace with technology and the marketplace.
EP currently offers four fully online degree programs, including Bioinformatics, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, and Environmental Planning and Management. There are more than 50 online courses offered across all 15 programs.
For more information on this program, visit the Engineering and Applied Science Programs for Professionals website.
APL continues to play a critical role in the development of this education program for working adults, which had its origins as an in-house program for the advanced training of APL employees. Over the years, the program has grown and developed into a degree-granting program open to the public, with up to 90% of the students coming from outside of APL. The faculty comprises scientists and engineers from APL and the Whiting School of Engineering; from regional aerospace, engineering, and information technology companies; and from government agencies. EP faculty are actively practicing what they teach, and a number of them have written textbooks that are widely used in their respective fields.
Degrees Offered
The EP program offers master’s degrees in 15 distinct disciplines. Nine of these programs are offered in full on APL’s Howard County campus. The nine APL-based programs are:
- Applied and Computational Mathematics
- Applied Biomedical Engineering
- Applied Physics
- Computer Science
- Electrical and Computer Engineering
- Information Assurance
- Information Systems Engineering
- Systems Engineering
- Technical Management
The Systems Engineering and Technical Management programs have become especially popular as a means for training personnel in the specialized skills and knowledge required to manage a technical organization and complex technical projects. APL, which is itself a large technical organization, has produced faculty who have the necessary expertise to develop and teach the courses in these programs.
In addition to the nine full programs listed above, selected courses are offered on the APL campus in the remaining program areas:
- Bioinformatics
- Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Environmental Engineering, Science, and Management
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Mechanical Engineering
Although not all courses are offered at all EP locations, many classes across all 15 disciplines are offered at multiple sites in the region as well as online. (See the Engineering for Professionals website for locations.)
Online courses are being developed and added to the curriculum to meet the needs of students who require even more flexibility in classroom scheduling. It is now possible to earn four of EP’s M.S. degrees—in Bioinformatics, Environmental Planning Management, Computer Science, and Systems Engineering—totally online. Individual online courses in several program areas are also offered.
Facilities, Office Hours, and Location Information
The APL Education Center supports and administers the EP program on the APL campus. The Education Center office is located in the lower level of the R. E. Gibson Library and is open Monday through Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., and Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Students and prospective students may contact the office directly:
Phone: 443-778-6510 (Baltimore Area)
240-228-6510 (Washington Area)E-mail: jhep@jhu.edu
Classrooms and laboratories are located in the lower level of the Gibson Library and in the Kossiakoff Conference and Education Center.
Educational Benefits for APL Staff
APL employees who take courses in the EP program receive tuition remission. (See Benefits for details.)
Strategic Education Program
The APL Education Center also administers the in-house, non-credit Strategic Education Program for APL Professional Staff. This program features 10- to 12-week-long courses on topics relevant to the strategic vision of the Laboratory. Classes are taught in the spring and fall by APL staff and meet once a week, from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., in a conference room on the main APL campus. Courses have no exams or grades but do include homework, readings, and/or projects, all of which are designed to help participants internalize the material and apply it to their work. Because courses are non-credit, the tuition fee of $850 is not covered by the APL’s part-time study benefits program but rather is charged to the appropriate departmental budget of the participant.
Examples of recent and planned offerings include:
- Modeling, Simulation, and Monte Carlo Methods
- Cognitive Engineering
- Topics in Information Assurance
- Operating in the Cyberspace Domain
- The Semantic Web
- Upstream Data Fusion
- Autonomous Systems
- Service-Oriented Architecture