The Georgia Southern University Allen E. Paulson College of Engineering & Information Technology (CEIT) is expanding by adding another branch of engineering to the majors offered.

CEIT is now offering manufacturing engineering as part of it’s curriculum.

The program started accepting students in fall 2015, but all interested are encouraged to change majors. The first expected graduation date is may 2019.

The new branch of study has been accreted by the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) and has the engineering department excited in being able to offer new opportunities for students to take advantage of.

“We invited ABET after a year of very extensive self-study programs, and we were able to successfully receive accreditation for this program, upon their visit in 2013 and we are accredited until 2019,” Mohammad Davoud, Dean of the College of Engineering & Information and Technology, said.

All universities have to go through the process of getting their programs accredited, which at times can take years. However, CEIT’s knowledge about engineering and technology allowed them to receive accreditation in a fast manner.

“This generally does not happen, because many engineering schools will have trouble for the first many years to get their programs first accreditation, but we were very successful, because we banked on our experience and knowledge of engineering and technology,” Davoud said.

Davoud elaborates that since then they have been very successful in having students go through the program and graduating with degrees from the specific college.

CEIT continues to grow as one of the departments in the university awarding a total of 415 degrees in the 2014-2015 fiscal year to undergraduate and graduate students. However, it has much catching up to do in regards to degrees awarded.

In addition, The Gene Haas Foundation has awarded a $15,000 grant to the manufacturing engineering program at GSU to assist students interested in the manufacturing field.

Students feel the fact that the university continues to grow, it allows them to compete with major universities around the state for prospective students.

“Knowing that we are getting bigger as a university will be great for the future, it puts Georgia Southern on the map to compete with other big schools around the state,” A’Lamar Smith, junior business & logistics major, said.

According to Davoud, having a transfer program for engineering majors with Georgia Tech was instrumental in getting their first time accreditation.

As more majors are added to the CEIT, it creates opportunities for not only students, but faculty and staff to grow in their area of expertise.

“We hired a lot of people, we have hired a lot of facility especially, and our college is growing very rapidly, first of all we have doubled our students in this college, we have over 3,000 in the overall college, very quickly we have doubled ourselves,” Davoud said.

Students feel excited about the university expanding the majors offered, even if they are not in their specific colleges.

“Even though that’s not my major, I sort of excites me to know that Georgia Southern never stops bettering themselves,” Olivia Perdue, junior biology major, said.

Davoud also explains that even though they are growing rapidly as a college they welcome everyone who wants to see if manufacturing engineering may spark their interest. He stresses that diversity is key, and will be a huge factor in the continued growth of the college.