As the Applied Engineering department continues to expand, with phase two of renovations set to be completed by mid-March, UNI has hired Stewart Carter as the new Chief Applied Engineering Administrator. Carter is a UNI alumnus with over 30 years of experience with John Deere in areas such as engineering, manufacturing operations, supply management, and logistics.
The Applied Engineering department was first opened in 1974 to educate shop teachers, and after a $44.7 million renovation project that began in 2022, the department reopened to students in the fall of 2024. The department now offers state-of-the-art labs, and classrooms to provide students with more hands-on opportunities as well as a metal casting center and Foundry 4.0 center, both of which are nationally recognized leaders in research and development.
According to a statistic from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, between 2016-2026, more than 130,000 new jobs will become available in the engineering field. Carter is excited to be back at UNI, especially at a time when engineering jobs are in such high demand. “I think the fact that UNI recognizes there’s a need to produce more engineers and STEM majors in the state of Iowa and they want to get into that is good,” Carter stated. “I’m excited to be a part of that journey to elevate engineering here at UNI.”
Currently, UNI offers ten majors within its engineering department. Part of Carter’s vision for the department is to continue to expand their program. He states that while majors like construction management and technical engineering have attracted a lot of students, he wants to continue that work and grow enrollment on the applied engineering side of the department. The department currently hopes to continue to grow enrollment by 50 percent by 2028 to meet Iowa’s workforce needs. Carter also wants to ensure that the degrees and majors being offered within the department align with industry standards. “We want to just really align with our industry partners… and so making sure we’re aligned with them on the curriculum, making sure we’re aligned with them on opportunities for funding, whether it be for lab equipment or scholarships, I want to do that.”
In addition to expanding the program, Carter hopes to bring in companies from around Iowa such as John Deere to provide professional opportunities to its students. “We are looking in the Cedar Valley seeing who we could partner with,” stated Carter. However, they are also looking at opportunities throughout the state of Iowa. “We wanted to kind of be diverse in those companies because we’re looking for those same companies to want to come in, talk to our students, provide internships, and hopefully hire our students.”
As the engineering industry continues to grow, ensuring a curriculum that is easily adaptable is extremely important. Carter hopes to work with both the executive advisory board as well as the advisory boards for every major in the department to ensure that the curriculum is up to date. “Not only do we strategically plan out what we need to do, but also we look at the curriculum level and say what is the upcoming trend? Are we offering the right curriculum? Are we attracting the right talent?” Additionally the executive advisory board, made up of about a dozen industry partners, can look at the curriculum and give additional input about things like if majors being offered are relevant or if the right classes are being offered.
In addition to expanding enrollment, Carter wants to add more diversity to the department. Currently, the majority of students in the department are from the state of Iowa, and Carter hopes to bring in more females and people of color to the department. Carter has met with individuals from the UNI-CUE center about what the talent in high schools looks like as well as STEM initiatives in high schools today. “Not only do I want to take care of the students that we have today, I want to grow enrollment, and I know that growth has to be not only our current demographics but also looking at females and then looking at people of color,” Carter states.
From the new nursing program on campus to the new growth of the Applied Engineering department, Carter is excited about what is in store for UNI. “We’ve done, historically, a great job with bringing students in and getting the more technical degree, or technology degree,” Carter states. “We think applied engineering could be a good fit for a lot of individuals who have that willingness to learn…but want that more hands-on approach. And so we think UNI and this program is going to be able to fulfill that mission.”
