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Engineering students see strong job market

The time is right to be enrolled in the Engineering School.

Virginia is now experiencing the "biggest explosion in the information technology industry," Engineering School Dean Richard W. Miksad said, and this boom has created an excellent job market for engineering students.

Miksad said Engineering School graduates will have access to many jobs in Virginia. He described Northern Virginia as the "Internet capital of the world," and said approximately half of all Internet communication goes through that area.

He listed microelectronics and semi-conductors, bioengineering, advanced materials science - which includes the development of new materials - and computer and systems engineering as some of the areas experiencing the most rapid growth within the engineering field.

He added that Charlottesville and the University are ripe to become a leading center of biotechnology.

Charlottesville is a good location because of the proximity of the Engineering School, the Medical School and the hospital. Conception, creation and testing of new technology all could occur within a "10-block area," Miksad said.

He said Charlottesville is a good location for the many small, specialized companies like the ones which have come to characterize the recent evolution of the communications technology industry.

He added that the University has a strong base in information technology including hardware, software and systems analysis.

According to William J. Thurneck, associate dean for administrative and academic affairs, the core of the University's information technology resources comes from the computer science, systems engineering and computer engineering departments.

Thurneck said computer science and systems engineering are the two most popular majors.

This year the Engineering School was forced to limit the number of computer science majors because of the department's growing popularity. There has been a cap on the number of systems engineering majors for the last five years.

The computer engineering major was created this year partly as a response to a demand from the engineering industry.

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