With demand for software engineers expected to grow in the coming years, the university responded to address the rapidly changing industry and help meet that anticipated demand. The university cited figures from the U.S. Department of Labor that showed software engineering is expected to be one of the fastest growing career fields through 2018 with an estimated 34-percent growth rate.

To help structure the program, university officials hired a consultant who worked alongside Michael Williams, associate dean of the Meinders School.

The program will offer students two tracks. One will focus on computer science, while the other will expand into business solutions to integrate systems and network perspectives into the core courses. The new programs will give students a well-rounded education focused on planning, design, quality assurance and project management.

“Over the past decade, the fields of computer science and information systems have experienced major shifts in both the workplace and the very nature of the work itself,” said Robert Greve, director of the Love’s Entrepreneurship Center and associate professor of information technology at the business school. “In this same time-frame, some aspects of software engineering have become high-growth areas.”