Experiential Programs Innovation Central, or EPIC, is the home of a new way to enhance undergraduate education, right here at UMaine.   With a selection of state-of-the art facilities available on campus, take your learning to a new level with hands-on, interdisciplinary applications–and come away with documentation of your augmented research and collaboration skills right on your transcript.  

Educational Objectives

The Certificate in Research, Innovation, and Strategy (CRIS) for Engineering Students is designed to complement a student’s core curriculum, and provide them with tangible skills to meet the needs of employers throughout Maine and across the world.

Coursework is designed to provide skill-building in the following areas:

  • Project management
  • Computational thinking
  • Critical thinking
  • Problem-solving
  • Communication
  • Research
  • Writing
  • Marketing
  • Teamwork and team management

Key objectives of the program include:

  • Students will develop new workforce development skills that they otherwise would not gain
    through their regular academic program
  • Students will gain a deep understanding of experiential resources on campus and have hands-on
    experience with those resources
  • Students will understand how to use changing technologies and their expertise in their field to
    creatively solve problems
  • Students will be able to articulate ways that their knowledge can be applied in real-world work
    settings clearly and effectively

Admissions

Current University of Maine Undergraduate Students

Current undergraduate students at UMaine desiring to enroll will need to submit the Declaration of Undergraduate Certificate form. This form will route through the respective Certificate Coordinator. Once the form is completed, the form will be sent over to Student Records for processing. Contact Kathleen Toole (epic@maine.edu) for additional information.

Eligibility Criteria

Students at UMaine are eligible to enroll in the Certificate program as long as the prerequisites for each course in the sequence are met.

A minimum GPA of 2.5 applies to all candidates and a minimum TOEFL score of 80 (IbT), 6.5 (IELTS), or 60 (PTE Academic) are required for international students.

Up to two courses completed for the certificate may be double-counted towards an undergraduate degree per the guidelines of the respective undergraduate degree program.

Requirements

The Certificate requires the completion of 4 courses through a combination of courses as described in the

course sequence section below. A maximum of two courses may be counted towards both the certificate

and an undergraduate degree program.

  • Undergraduate category: Student must complete 4 courses with a minimum GPA of 2.5 and a minimum grade of C– in each course.
  • Student is required to take INT 125: Experiential Programs Innovation Central, which serves as a core component of the certificate.
  • Student will select one elective, non-major course to complete the certificate requirements.
  • Certificate credit hours range from 10-13, depending upon course selection

The Certificate program shall be completed within four years from the date of acceptance into the program.

Course Sequence

Four pathways have been developed, to date, allowing students in the College of Engineering to obtain the certificate while tailoring the content of the program to their field of study. Additional pathways are in development for other Colleges.

Students will select one course from each of four content areas: Communication, Research, Innovation, and Strategy. Some selected courses meet more than one content area. Each student is required to take INT 125 and is able to count up to two selected courses in their field of study, as identified below, towards the certificate.

  1. Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (11-13 credits)
  2. Civil and Environmental Engineering (11-12 credits)
  3. Electrical and Computer Engineering (10-13 credits)
  4. Mechanical Engineering (10-13 credits)

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