IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO.

4, JULY 2014 1903

A New Professional Science Master Program

for Electric Power Systems Engineering
Mesut E. Baran, Fellow, IEEE, Pam Page Carpenter, Lisbeth Borbye, David L. Lubkeman, Senior Member, IEEE,
Michael Ligett, and David H. Covington

Abstract—This paper proposes to adopt the emerging Profes- Recent efforts to enhance power education at graduate level
sional Science Master (PSM) program as a model for enriching mainly involve development of courses related to renewable en-
power engineering education. PSM programs provide comprehen- ergy, distribution systems, and smart grid [7]–[11]. A new grad-
sive training in an academic and technical specialty along with the
appropriate professional skills needed for a professional career. uate program has been developed at Carnegie Mellon University
The paper outlines the new PSM program—MS in Electric Power with new integrated courses to emphasize multi-disciplinary ap-
Systems Engineering. The program encompasses engineering, proach for solving complex power system problems [12]. A dif-
management, and other professional skills needed for a successful ferent example is the new Ph.D. program focusing on wind en-
career in the power engineering industry, and includes both ergy [23]. Both these programs have project management and
in-depth core power engineering topics as wells as new cross-disci-
plinary technical topics relevant to the clean-energy Smart Grid. policy components.
One of the main shortcomings of current education programs
Index Terms—Curriculum, electric power engineering, multi-
on science and engineering has been the lack of training in
disciplinary power courses.
professional skills that a new graduate needs when he/she en-
ters the workforce in order to rapidly adapt to the work en-
I. INTRODUCTION vironment. Recent efforts to address these shortcomings have
led the emergence of a new type of graduate programs, called
Professional Science Master (PSM) programs [13]. These pro-
D EMAND for power engineers is growing and is expected
to accelerate further in near future years [1]–[5]. It is ex-
pected that most of the power engineering jobs will be related to
grams aim at closing the skills gap between graduate education
and workforce needs. They receive affiliation as PSM programs
based on a number of “professional” criteria, and some have
deployment of smart grid technologies, and the adoption of new
been supported by NSF [14]. PSM programs include “work-
technologies such as the plug-in hybrid vehicle (PHEV) and
force training” in an interdisciplinary curriculum without af-
energy storage [5]. These new jobs will require a well-trained
fecting the academic rigor.
power engineering workforce. Recently, Department of Energy
This paper describes the development of a new PSM program
(DOE) has recognized that the next generation of engineers will
undertaken at NCSU for power systems engineering education.
need new engineering skills, and to address this need, DOE has
This the first PSM program in power engineering and the goal
offered support to engineering colleges for the development of
of the program is to develop a graduate level Master of Sci-
workforce training programs [6].
ence (MS) program which provides comprehensive education
Currently, power engineering education in much of higher ed-
in power system engineering as well as workforce-relevant pro-
ucation institutions in the United States at graduate level is of-
fessional skills training. The next section provides a brief in-
fered as a specialty area within an electrical engineering (EE)
troduction to the PSM concept, Section III introduces the new
program. Master level programs encourage specialization by
program developed, MS-EPSE. Section IV highlights some of
requiring students to take at least two to three courses in the
the outcomes, and Section V provides the conclusions.
area of interest. This is the case at North Carolina State Univer-
sity (NCSU) and until recently, there were only three traditional II. PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE MASTER PROGRAMS
power system courses at graduate level (power system opera-
PSM programs are interdisciplinary STEM (science, tech-
tion and control, transient stability analysis, and computational
nology, engineering, mathematics) programs tailored in
methods). Some of the schools surveyed have 4–10 graduate
collaboration with external employers with the goal to meet
power engineering courses, and variation of course offerings de-
their needs for an improved workforce. The capacity to close
pends usually on faculty expertise. Most of the traditional power
the existing skills gap between university education and em-
courses tend to be analysis-focused.
ployers’ needs is based on the dynamic interaction between the
parties [13].
Manuscript received June 07, 2013; revised October 16, 2013 and January 07,
PSM programs have external employer advisory boards,
2014; accepted February 12, 2014. Date of publication April 29, 2014; date of
current version June 16, 2014. This work was supported by the DOE under the and board members may enjoy many different roles. These
grant DOE-FOA-0000152: Workforce Training for the Electric Power Sector. include oversight over the curriculum, provision of lectures,
Paper no. TPWRS-00742-2013.
case-studies, projects, internships, and mentoring. As a rule,
The authors are with North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695
USA (e-mail: baran@ncsu.edu). the curriculum must contain more than 50% STEM courses
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TPWRS.2014.2316290 and include trade-specific management and professional skills

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See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.

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1904
training as well as intensive employer interaction [for example,
as an internship or one or more employer-provided project(s)].
The advantages for universities of hosting PSM programs are
many and include an opportunity for university personnel to ac-
cess new resources and collaboration as well as an ability to
offer highly competitive graduate programs. Students very often
get job offers prior to graduation because they already are fa-
miliar with the employers, the newest technology, and how to
behave in the work place. Employers benefit from co-designing
graduate education to fit their own needs, fresh thinking from
students and PSM directors, and first access to potential new
employees. As part of the PSM affiliation criteria, the employ-
ment of the PSM graduates must be tracked for a period of time.
Early analysis has shown that out of the first 500 graduates, ap-
proximately 90% are employed (10% not known).
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has sponsored multiple PSM
programs in the University of North Carolina System and na-
tionwide [15], [16]. A decade later, PSMs have moved from a
proof of concept phase to a solid reality with approximately 300
programs in existence [17]. This increase is expected to continue
and is a testament to the very high demand for both PSM pro-
grams and PSM graduates.
NCSU currently hosts a dozen or so PSM programs and
many more are being planned [15]. The EPSE PSM program
is one them (see below). In terms of technical content and cur-
riculum, PSM programs have the same flexibility and variation
as compared to that of the regular MS programs. Two PSM
programs at NCSU, EPSE and Computer Networking (CN), are
good examples [15]. EPSE has only a non-thesis option while
the CN has both thesis and non-thesis options. The technical
core in CN consists of two sets of courses; the first set contains
core technical courses, and students need to choose four courses
from this set. The second set contains technical elective courses
from which students need to select up to five courses. This set
contains both CN courses as well as other technical courses
in computer engineering and computer science. A third set
contains courses from the School of Business Administration,
and students can select up to three courses. These courses and
an industry internship provide the professional skills training
for the students. The CN program is a quite typical engineering
PSM program. The EPSE program differs from this program in
two main ways: 1) the technical elective course set is restricted
to provide a cohesive set of courses that complement the
core courses, and 2) the professional skill training is provided
through an integrated set of courses developed with power
engineering content rather than through a set of courses form
other disciplines. The following section outlines the main
features of the EPSE program.
III. PSM IN POWER SYSTEM SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
The effort to develop a new PSM program in Power System
Engineering-MS-EPSE-was funded by the Department of En-
ergy and has been undertaken at NCSU during the 2010–2011
academic year. The mission is to produce graduates capable
of handling the challenges of the national power (smart) grid
[18], [19]. Therefore, MS-EPSE aims at giving the students a
thorough understanding of the tools, methods, and management
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 4, JULY 2014
practice of electric power engineering, with the goal of pro-
viding an education that is directly applicable to a career in in-
dustry [18], [20].
The MS-EPSE program differs considerably from the current
engineering graduate master degree programs in electrical en-
gineering. The program consists of a set of integrated courses.
These integrated courses cover both the core power engineering
topics as well as the new cross-disciplinary technical topics rel-
evant to the clean-energy smart grid.
MS-EPSE program integrates four main components [20]:
1) Core power engineering topics: The core electric power
engineering topics is integrated into three courses: Funda-
mentals of Power Engineering, Power System Operation
and Control, and Power System Protection.
2) Cross-disciplinary courses for smart grid applications:
These are four new integrated courses:
• Electric Power Generation: Interdisciplinary course
covering both conventional thermal power plants, as
well as new renewable energy based systems.
• Power Electronics and Its Power System Applications:
A course covering the fundamentals of power elec-
tronics and its applications to power systems.
• Communication and Cyber Security Systems for Smart
Grid: Interdisciplinary course covering the basic com-
munication and information technologies and their
applications to power systems; also the cyber security
issues.
• Distribution Systems and Smart Grid Applications: A
course focusing on distribution system engineering and
the smart grid technology applications at the distribution
level.
3) Hands-on-Experience on Smart Grid Applications: Each
course has a lab, or a project to provide design and
hands-on experience. To further promote integration of
concepts and provide hands-on experience, there is a cap-
stone project. The project is a realistic application solicited
from industry and the students are asked to prototype a
method or device and implement it.
4) Professional Skills Training: To complement the engi-
neering training and provide professional skills, three inte-
grated courses have been developed. The first course—The
Business of the Electric Utility Industry—covers the struc-
ture of the utility industry, the regulatory environment, and
policy issues. The second course—Power Engineering
Practicum—integrates the project management basics
with effective communication skills, both written and
oral. This course is team taught by faculty from Business
Management and English.
Each course consists of modules which are developed and
taught jointly by a team of faculty and experts from industry.
The modules facilitate team teaching. Fig. 1 shows how these
components are mapped to the requirements for a PSM program.
With these components, MS-EPSE has been affiliated as a PSM
program in spring 2012.
Table I(a) shows the original MS-EPSE program. The pro-
gram starts with an introductory course in the summer and
continues with five courses in the fall and three in the spring
semesters. The program has a capstone project in the spring
BARAN et al.: A NEW PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE MASTER PROGRAM FOR ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
Fig. 1. Main PMS components of EPSE.
TABLE I
(A) MS-EPSE CURRICULUM-ORIGINAL. (B) MS-EPSE CURRICULUM-REVISED
semester. All these courses are mandatory and the program
offers the students an opportunity to finish the program in 10
months.
Table I(b) shows the recently revised EPSE program which
reflects the changes made based on the experience gained within
the first three years and the feedback from students. Three of
the main changes are: 1) elimination of the introductory course,
as most of the applicants have adequate background, 2) pro-
vide more choices in technical courses by allowing students to
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1905
TABLE II
RENEWABLE ELECTRIC ENERGY SYSTEMS COURSE MODULES
choose 3 of the technical courses from a wider set of engineering
courses, 3) moving of the capstone project to summer so that
students can take all the technical courses before taking the cap-
stone project.
The original program has been tailored after a very successful
PSM program [24], which is a 10-month program. But imple-
menting such a program in electrical engineering curriculum has
been challenging, as the students have to take a heavy load of
4–5 courses per semester. Although some students had taken
the full load and completed the program in 10 months, the ma-
jority of the students finish the program in 18 months. The extra
semester allows the students to better assimilate the course ma-
terial that is new to them, such as power electronics, and com-
munications and SCADA.
A more detailed overview of some of the new courses is pro-
vided below.
Renewable Electric Energy Systems: This course focuses on
electric power generation. The course introduces fundamental
processes currently used for electric power generation such as
heat engines, and steam and gas turbines. Then the course in-
troduces renewable energy based power generation techniques
(RES), mainly solar and wind energy systems. The course also
introduces basic economics of electric power generation, and
uses these concepts to provide economic assessment of alterna-
tive power generation technologies. The environmental aspects
of both the conventional fossil fuel technologies and RES tech-
nologies are also covered. These topics provides awareness to
the recent efforts towards reducing carbon based fuel for elec-
tricity, and increasing the use of Earth’s green and renewable en-
ergy sources (solar, wind, geo-thermal, hydro) in order to move
towards more sustainable energy utilization. Table II provides a
summary of main modules and the topics covered.
This is an interdisciplinary course covering thermo-dy-
namics, electrical machines, power electronics, environmental
science, and engineering economics. To facilitate a better expo-
sure to these topics, the course is team taught by three faculty
members from mechanical engineering, electrical engineering,
and environmental engineering. Student interest in energy
sustainability and environmental issues makes this course
especially popular, as these topics are not currently covered
under electrical engineering curriculum, and recently being
introduced [7], [9].
Communications and SCADA Systems for Smart Grid: This
course is an introduction to communications and SCADA
(supervisory control and data acquisition) systems for electric
power system applications. Students learn the fundamental con-
cepts, principles, and practice of how communication systems
1906
TABLE III
COMMUNICATIONS AND SCADA COURSE MODULES
operate and the functions of relevant communications compo-
nents. The course also covers applications of communications
systems for electric power, in particular SCADA architecture
and protocols. The course includes hands-on experience with
typical intelligent electronic devices interconnected by a com-
munications system in a laboratory environment.
The course is broken down into five modules as shown in
Table III. The first module (M1) is an overview of basic com-
munications topics, ranging from the physical media employed
to computer networking concepts. Once students have a grasp of
communications basics, the course then focuses on topics more
specific to electric power systems. The second module (M2) and
third module (M3) focus on electric utility SCADA systems and
devices, with emphasis on the use of the DNP3 protocol. The
IEC 61850 protocol that is now being adopted for relaying ap-
plications is also covered. A fourth module (M4) covers cyber
security basics including guidelines developed by the National
Institute of Standards and Technology (NISTIR 7628). Finally
other types of utility networking applications are included in
the fifth module (M5) such as field area networks (FAN), utility
wide area networks (WAN), advanced metering infrastructure
(AMI), and home automation networks (HAN).
The course assignments include basic analysis of commu-
nications systems as well more specific applications to power
systems. For communications basics, this includes problems on
how data gets mapped into frames, commonly used protocols,
data rate performance, error checking, and comparative analysis
of communications schemes. The more specific application-ori-
ented homework focus on how protocols such as DNP and IEC
61850 work as well as understanding the basic communications
components employed in the utility industry. The course mod-
ules also include lab exercises that provide the students with an
opportunity to get hands-on experience with utility communi-
cations technology. The lab exercises include working with a
simple SCADA system, configuring relays and other measure-
ment devices typically seen in substations and on the feeder,
setting up DNP3 and IEC 61850 on intelligent electronic de-
vices, using a network traffic analyzer, and using other commu-
nications network components such as data concentrators and
switches.
Having this type of course provides students with a basic
communications background needed for utility engineers
working with SCADA systems, substation protective relay
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 4, JULY 2014
TABLE IV
SMART DISTRIBUTION COURSE MODULES
devices, or distribution automation. A number of students have
found this to be an important differentiator when applying for
an entry-level position.
Smart Electric Power Distribution Systems: This course
focuses on distribution system engineering and various smart
grid technology applications at the distribution level. The
course starts out by describing features of a distribution system
and the basic distribution components utilized. A variety of dis-
tribution analysis techniques are also covered. The course also
introduces the new efforts to modernize the distribution system
using field communications and distribution management
system functionality to make the system a “smart” distribution
system.
The distribution course is broken down into five modules as
shown in Table IV. The first module (M1) reviews the various
components such as load, transformers, overhead and under-
ground lines, etc. The second module (M2) describes how com-
ponent characteristics can be used to develop system models
for a variety of distribution analyses. Analysis techniques cov-
ered include radial power flow, short circuit, protection coordi-
nation, reliability, and power quality (voltage sags/swells). The
second half of the course focuses on smart grid concepts. The
third module (M3) discusses how distribution circuits can be
automated for fault location isolation and service restoration
(FLISR) and integrated volt/VAR control (IVVC). Integration
of distributed energy resources (DER), such as photovoltaic sys-
tems, is covered in the fourth module (M4) as well as appli-
cations of DER to microgrids. Other smart grid technologies
such as demand side management are covered in the last module
(M5).
The course homework assignments focus on typical analysis
that a distribution engineer will need to understand such as load
characterization, transformer and feeder modeling, power flow
and short-circuit analysis, power factor correction, protection
coordination, reliability index calculations, and voltage power
quality. The distribution course also features a semester project
in which the students utilize an example circuit supplied by in-
dustry. The goal of the project is to provide the students an
opportunity to apply smart distribution concepts to an actual
distribution system and conduct a study similar to what they
might be expected to perform while working in industry. Stu-
dents work in teams, learn to utilize commercial distribution
BARAN et al.: A NEW PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE MASTER PROGRAM FOR ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
TABLE V
UTILITY BUSINESS COURSE MODULES
modeling tools similar to those they would utilize in a work en-
vironment, and present their final results in both written report
format and orally.
Professional Skills Training: To provide the power engineers
with essential professional workforce skills, this program re-
quires students to acquire project-management and systems-en-
gineering skills, along with practice in written and oral commu-
nication and teamwork, as they work on an industry-sponsored
project.
Students acquire these skills through their participation in
three courses. The first course, The Business of the Electric
Utility Industry, covers the structure of the utility industry,
the regulatory environment, and policy issues. The second
course, Electric Power Engineering Practicum I, integrates
project-management and systems-engineering basics with
effective communication skills. The third course, Electric
Power Engineering Practicum II, involves students in an in-
dustry-sponsored capstone project.
The Business of the Electric Utility Industry course provides
essential information about the electric utility business, in-
cluding the history and evolution of the industry, the structure
and business models of the industry, the regulatory structures
within which U.S. utilities operate, the operations of the utility
industry, and the current policy and emerging technology issues
facing the business. Table V provides the main modules and the
topics. Each module is covered in about 4–6 lectures, and some
are supplemented by field visits to utility operations sites and
guest lectures. Students are evaluated upon weekly assignments
and assessments (20%), two exams (60%), and a team project
to develop and defend a utility rate request (20%).
Electric Power Engineering Practicum I course includes 3
professional skills modules that are planned and integrated as a
single course:
• Business Communications covers business writing, pre-
sentation development, and public speaking and presenta-
tion skills.
• Project Management covers the planning, scheduling, and
execution of technical projects.
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1907
• Systems Engineering covers the concepts and tools needed
to plan and execute complex projects.
Students are evaluated on individual communication skills
(20%), team project planning and presentation assessments
(75%), and individual participation and communication skills
(5%).
The last component of the professional skills training in-
volves a capstone project. In this class, students work in teams
with an industry sponsor to complete industry-sponsored real
projects. The goal here is to provide an industry project en-
vironment and experience. To achieve this, students first get
training on project management in the practicum course and
apply that knowledge to the project they have chosen. Each
team develops a detailed project plan in the practicum course,
and then teams implement their plan in the capstone course.
Capstone project provides an opportunity for the students
to apply electric engineering and science knowledge to an
electrical-power-engineering project, and to improve their
hands-on engineering-design skills as they work on open-ended
problems involving state-of-the-art technology.
Administration of the capstone project involves the course
instructor taking the role of a project supervisor and a faculty
member taking the role of technical advisor. Throughout the
course, students share their progress and insights with their
academic and industry advisors. Students follow the profes-
sional procedures in communicating with sponsors, develop
fully annotated project reports and Power Point presentations
that they present to the industry sponsor and the EPSE faculty
advisors. Students are evaluated on feedback from industry
sponsors (10%), team project reviews (15%), peer reviews
(10%), and final team project report and presentation (65%).
Capstone project topics provided by industry to date have
tended to have either a feasibility study, product development,
or product evaluation nature to them. Examples of feasibility
studies to date have included an evaluation of energy storage
in improving substation operations as well as characterization
of megawatt-scale photovoltaic generation on a distribution cir-
cuit. Product development-type projects have looked at devel-
opment of new relay test software as well as a substation tech-
nology comparison sales tool. An example of a product evalua-
tion project was a comparison of the performance of IEC 61850-
based relays with respect to peer-to-peer communications.
IV. PROGRAM OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENT
MS-EPSE program has been developed in three stages. The
new courses for the program have been developed during the
2010–2011 academic year and offered to a cohort of 20 students
through the existing concentration program. The MS-EPSE de-
gree has gone through the university review process and was
approved in Fall of 2011. The program has also been accred-
ited as a PSM program during that period. MS-EPSE has been
launched as one of the new degree programs through the Elec-
trical and Computer Engineering Department at NCSU in the
Fall of 2011 with four students. The second cohort started in
Fall 2012 with 14 students. For Fall 2013-Spring 2014 academic
year, EPSE program has received 94 applications, and 38 stu-
dent have been accepted. This fast growth in applications indi-
cates the growing popularity of the program.
1908
The main expected outcomes of the EPSE program include:
1) Graduates successfully complete the program and enter the
power engineering workforce with a comprehensive under-
standing of smart grid applications and renewable and con-
ventional energy technologies.
2) Graduates are equipped with the necessary professional
skills to manage and lead projects. Skill sets include project
management, leadership, team skills, self-management, in-
terdisciplinary skills, decision and problem-solving skills,
and communications (both oral and written). This ensures
that EPSE graduates are prepared to be globally competi-
tive in power engineering.
3) EPSE students, through their interactions with industry
and capstone project, gain experience on project manage-
ment and working on complex problems related to power
industry.
Program Implementation: One of the challenges in designing
the EPSE curriculum was related to the breath versus depth.
In MS-EE program, students are required to take at least two
courses outside of their specialty to get some breadth. In EPSE,
this condition is satisfied by the two courses which focus on
the utility business and the professional skills. The other chal-
lenge is course selection for the technical core. EPSE focuses
on power system engineering, but nevertheless, the topics to be
covered needed to be limited, due to many factors, such as how
fundamental are the concepts, and whether the faculty has the
expertise to teach the topic. Six technical courses selected for
the EPSE program aims at covering most of the core concepts
related to the power system engineering. The industry advisory
board for the program has helped in narrowing down and final-
izing the list. A comprehensive curriculum requires as large of
an instructor pool as possible. At NCSU, there are six faculty
involved in the program and four part-time instructors from in-
dustry to teach some of the course modules.
Development of courses for professional skills is another
challenge. The approach we have taken is the creation of an
integrated course—practicum course—which integrates com-
munication skills with the project management skills. For these
concepts to be assimilated and tied to real-world experience, the
course is tied closely with the capstone project. Furthermore,
development and delivery of the practicum course is led by a
team which consists of a faculty from the English Department
and an engineer from industry who has experience in project
management in a power utility company. Another approach for
professional skills component, which is adopted by other PSM
programs, is to offer separate courses on communication skills
and project management skills that are available from other
departments [15].
The implementation of the EPSE program was also chal-
lenging in regards to the infrastructure. One of the main
components of a PSM program is the hands-on component.
In the EPSE program, this is achieved by: 1) developing
hands-on labs to accompany courses, and 2) working with
industry to provide capstone projects and internships for the
students. Currently we have either labs and/or major design
project in all the technical courses. The resources offered
by the FREEDM center have been helpful in creating these
labs. Some of the resources available to students involve: a
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 4, JULY 2014
commercial Dispatcher Training Simulator, an actual SCADA
system, a rooftop PV system, a wind turbine emulator, a digital
real-time power system simulator, a relay test system, and
professional software packages such as Matlab/Simpower,
EMTDC/PSCAD, CYME, and PSSE. Maintaining the labs
usually requires at least teaching assistant support. Also, to
facilitate industry interactions and capstone projects, we have a
program manager/administrator.
The background requirements for admission to EPSE are very
similar to the requirements for MS-EE. The majority of appli-
cants hold a BS in Electrical Engineering, but there are other
pathways into the program. The applicants without a BSEE are
considered and they are usually asked to take a series of courses
prior to applying to the program. The EPSE program has some
students who have chosen this path and have been successful in
the program.
Finally, since the program needs extra resources, financial
support and industry support are key for the program sustain-
ability. In our case, NCSU has provided financial support pro-
vided that the enrollment target of 30 students is met, and there
has been very strong industry support from the industry.
Assessment: To ensure that the new EPSE program will reach
these outcomes, a comprehensive assessment program has also
been launched.
During early program development, consultations with
local industry and utilities were conducted in order to identify
industry needs. Indeed, the importance of professional skills
training has emerged from these interactions. Furthermore, an
initial industry survey was conducted during the development
of the program in Fall 2011 in order to assess if this new pro-
gram meets industry needs, provides graduates that are highly
employable, and can take the future leadership positions. The
survey was conducted by KEMA and the main outcomes of the
survey are given in [21]. The survey results related to the two
main components of the EPSE were as follows:
1) The core power engineering courses of EPSE program pro-
vide adequate training to a new power engineer (approval
rate is 95%)
2) The professional training provided through three inte-
grated courses in EPSE has been deemed very important
for a new graduating engineer (with an average score of
4.3/5).
This survey indicated a strong support and approval for the
EPSE program. Indeed during the first two years, the program
has received very strong support from local industry which in-
cludes industry leaders such as Siemens and ABB and local util-
ities Progress Energy and Duke Power. These companies cur-
rently provide six scholarships for the EPSE students.
To assess the EPSE program on a continuing basis, EPSE
program offers an informal online survey for the students at the
end of each semester to inquire about the students’ experiences.
The purpose of the informal survey is to gather feedback about
student’s experiences in the program and providing information
about improvements or revisions to the EPSE program.
The first section of the survey asked specific questions about
the EPSE program. The students strongly agreed that the pro-
fessional skills component of the program helped them develop
skills for their career; the economics, finance, policy, and other
BARAN et al.: A NEW PROFESSIONAL SCIENCE MASTER PROGRAM FOR ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
non-technical topics assisted the students to fully understand the
topic, and students indicated that their peers worked as teams
with distributed workloads for the capstone project. The stu-
dents agreed that the course content was challenging, but not
overwhelming; the number of hours spent on the course work
was reasonable.
The second section of the survey inquired about the student’s
experiences working on the capstone project. The students
strongly agreed that they felt part of a team and that the project
was beneficial because it was a real-world project and working
with faculty and industry mentors.
The third section asked about a sense of community. It is im-
portant to create a sense of community and inclusiveness for all
the students, but this is particularly the case for women in en-
gineering according to Goodman and Cunningham [22] as indi-
cated a sense of belonging has been identified as critical to the
success of women in engineering. The responses from students
regarding inclusiveness in the EPSE community were equally
divided between strongly agree and agree in regards to the fol-
lowing areas: EPSE faculty and staff were receptive to students’
thoughts, concerns, and ideas; receiving prompt feedback from
EPSE staff and faculty when there was a question or concern;
students liked interacting with EPSE faculty, staff, and students
in social settings; they felt like they had formed lasting profes-
sional relationships with peers.
The EPSE program is designed to be a workforce training
program, and as such, its scope is more targeted than a conven-
tional MS-EE program which allows students to take a broader
scope of courses. This is indeed one choice students need to
make, and EPSE offers an opportunity for the students who want
to specialize in an area of their choice. The main differentiator in
EPSE is the professional skills component and students realize
the value of this, especially in terms of increasing their employ-
ment opportunities. Informal feedback from applicants supports
this observation.
The program has produced a limited number of graduates.
Informal feedback from graduates indicates that EPSE has pre-
pared them well for the industry. A typical feedback is “the
breadth of the classes, the faculty and industry involvement
with students created a unique program for students. The cap-
stone projects allow students to interact with relevant tools in
industry that they may not have access to otherwise and builds
connections with industry mentors providing valuable feedback
on multiple levels.”
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper describes the successful development of a new
professional science Master’s degree program focusing on Elec-
tric Power System engineering—MS-EPSE program. The pro-
gram incorporates the principles of the PSM program as a model
for enriching power engineering education. The goal of the pro-
gram is to provide a comprehensive training in power engi-
neering along with the appropriate professional skills needed
for professional development and leadership.
The paper outlines the main components of the new EPSE
program. Both the new power and energy related courses needed
for the smart grid and also the new set of integrated courses for
professional skills training have been outlined.
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1909
The paper also summarizes the efforts taken for assessment.
These efforts and the feedback from industry and students in-
dicate that: 1) both the core technical courses on power en-
gineering as well as integrated courses for professional skills
training are equally important and relevant for future power en-
gineering workforce, and 2) the MS-EPSE program is meeting
industry needs towards providing the engineering and smart grid
training for the next generation of power engineers.
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1910
Mesut E. Baran (SM’05–F’11) received the Ph.D. degree from the University
of California, Berkeley, CA, USA, in 1988.
He is currently a Professor at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC,
USA. His research interests include distribution and transmission system anal-
ysis and control, and renewable energy systems.
Pam Page Carpenter received the Ed.D. degree in technology, engineering,
and design education from North Carolina State University (NCSU), Raleigh,
NC, USA.
Her areas of expertise include developing science, technology, engineering,
and mathematics (STEM) programs in renewable energy technologies and elec-
tric vehicles. She is the Program Manager for the EPSE program and an Adjunct
Associate Professor in the STEM Department at NCSU.
Lisbeth Borbye received the Ph.D. degree from Copenhagen University,
Denmark.
She has lead research in both industry and university settings. She is the Assis-
tant Dean for Professional Education in the Graduate School at North Carolina
State University (NCSU), Raleigh, NC, USA. She also leads the University of
North Carolina’s Systemwide Professional Science Master’s Program.
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON POWER SYSTEMS, VOL. 29, NO. 4, JULY 2014
David L. Lubkeman (SM’92) received the Ph.D. degree in electrical engi-
neering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA.
He is currently a Research Professor at North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, NC, USA. His research interests include electric power distribution
system analysis, distribution automation, distribution management systems,
renewable energy integration and microgrid applications.
Dr. Lubkeman is a licensed professional engineer.
Michael Ligett received the M.B.A. degree from Rutgers Business School,
Newark, NJ, USA.
He is currently an instructor at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC,
USA. He was previously employed at Progress Energy in Raleigh.
David H. Covington received the Ph.D. degree from Vanderbilt University,
Nashville, TN, USA.
He is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at North Carolina
State University, Raleigh, NC, USA, where he teaches technical communication
and serves as Director of the Professional Writing Program.