Original Date: 04/24/2007
Revision Date: / /

The University of New Orleans, College of Engineering (UNO COE) has formed impressive partnerships with the U.S. Navy, the Department of Defense, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the state of Louisiana, the maritime industry, and other countries and universities. Through these partnerships, the UNO COE has developed innovative technologies that are unique to the Best Manufacturing Practices (BMP) Program and national shipbuilding. The BMP resurvey of the UNO COE was conducted during the week of April 23, 2007.

Since 1978, the UNO COE has continually improved its quality of instruction and is making steady progress in all its research endeavors. The tallest building at the UNO Lakefront Campus proudly belongs to the COE, offering Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology undergraduate programs in civil and environmental engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and naval architecture and marine engineering (NAME). The UNO COE also provides graduate programs in civil engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, NAME, and engineering management. A doctorate program in engineering and applied sciences is also offered. The UNO COE’s success throughout the years has made it the largest undergraduate NAME program in the nation.

The UNO COE staffs 45 full-time faculty and has enrolled 1,134 undergraduate and 238 graduate students. The UNO COE is among the top ten universities for research dollars for faculty in the United States. The college focuses on many opportunities for students to improve their education and advance their career skills as well as 13 professional societies and five honor societies for students that include the Society for Advanced Graduate Engineering Studies, the National Society of Black Engineers, the Society of Women Engineers, and Tau Beta Pi. With 85% of the UNO students working their way through school, the COE developed an exceptional cooperative education program that includes a plan that enables students to alternate periods of school attendance with study- related work experience and a Parallel Plan, which allows students to work part-time each semester while being enrolled in a degree-granting program as a full-time student. The Engineering Placement Officer makes every attempt to place students in local or regional industries related to the student’s designated area of specialization. Along with focusing on programs for students, the UNO COE continues to expand its industry partnerships and increase the scope of funding of its sponsored research programs.

The UNO COE operates four Research Centers of Excellence that collectively generate well over half the sponsored research of the university on an annual basis. These include the Schlieder Urban Environmental Systems Center (SUESC) that supports scientific and technical research activities in the management of solid waste, water and wastewater, water resources, and air quality; the Gulf Coast Region Maritime Technology Center (GCRMTC), whose mission is to help the U.S. maritime industry become more competitive on an international scale through sponsored research while striving for recognition as the best source for technology by the maritime community; the Energy Conversion and Conservation Center that conducts clean-energy research and development, catalyzes interaction among government, industry, and academia, and provides services to advocate clean energy and energy conservation; and the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing (NCAM) that promotes advanced manufacturing technologies in both aerospace and commercial markets through research, design, manufacturing, and testing activities. The researchers in all of these facilities are working to solve problems that promise to have a significant impact on regional and national industries.

Through its primary focus on research and development efforts, the UNO COE has developed many technological practices to meet the challenges and demands of today’s changing world. The BMP survey team considers the practices in this report to be among the best in industry and government.

TABLE OF ACRONYMS:
The following acronyms were used in this report:

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.