During draft days, college was once an alternative to serving time in the military. With a new engineering-oriented program from Purdue University (West Lafayette, Ind.), however, students can pursue an education that combines liberal arts, social sciences, and engineering in support of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).
Courses in the new program at Purdue are available as noncredit and degree-building versions, and they can be taken (some online) individually or as part of a certificate in strategic defense technologies. The university plans to launch a graduate (Master's degree) certificate in the strategic defense program in the Spring of 2025.
Sorin Adam Matei, professor and associate dean of research and graduate education in the College of Liberal Arts, explained, “Purdue is uniquely qualified to train military and civilian learners interested in strategic defense technologies. While our program examines and explores technologies and engineering solutions, it does it from a policy and social sciences perspective, both calibrated to support and expand practical work in national defense and strategic military planning.”
The new defense-guided program was created by those involved with Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts’ FORCES initiative, which is devoted to serving the educational needs of the U.S. armed forces. Core courses titled Grand Challenges in Defense Engineering; Space Strategy; Strategic Foresight; Technology, War and Strategy; and Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) Storytelling are embedded across the program.
To earn the Strategic Defense Technologies certificate, learners complete the Technology, War and Strategy course and two of the other four core courses. However, all of the courses can be taken individually outside of the certificate program. The courses have no prerequisites.