A record 358 students received degrees via the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's industry-leading Distance Education Network in 2009.

Nageeb Rodwan, MS PE

The total represents a small increase over 2008, when 354 DEN candidates obtained degrees. Most of them completed their academic studies while working full time engineering jobs, as part of their employment, but a record number of students — 50 —  were independents, pursuing their degrees on their own, some of them from outside the U.S.

More than 100 DEN graduates attended the commencement.

And Woochul Jun, a Korean Air employee who took DEN courses while living and working in Seoul, Korea, is among the class of 2009, earning an MS in EMT from the Epstein ISE Department. So is Nageeb Rodwan, from Libya, who earned his MS in Petroleum Engineering from the Mork Family Department.

"This year's class is notable in showing the expanding range of offerings DEN is providing, not only in our traditional areas like Electrical Engineering and Systems Engineering/Systems Architecting, but also in fields like civil and biomedical engineering," said Viterbi School Associate Dean for Masters and Professional Programs Kelly Goulis.

Most (227) of the American students who came from were from California, but other substantial contingents came from Washington state (24) and Texas (10), One large new category was distance learning students not learning at a distance: 14 of the new DEN graduates took DEN

Lorimar Hernandez, EE

courses on the Viterbi School’s campus in Los Angeles as well as online.

Companies supporting the most students were Boeing (102), Northrop Grumman (66),  Raytheon (52), and Lockheed Martin (16). Other companies with employees holding new USC degrees include the Aerospace Corporation, Agilent Technologies, Broadcom, Chevron, General Electric, Google, Intel, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Honeywell, Hughes, IBM, Occidental Petroleum, SAIC, Schlumberger, United Technologies and UT Rocketdyne, as well as such government agencies as the Air Force Research Laboratory, the FAA, the LA Department of Water and Power, Pt. Mugu Naval Base, and  NASA.

This year’s class also includes employees of a variety of health care and biomedical companies, including Advanced Sterilization Products, Medtronics, Boston Scientific, Cytori Therapeutics and others.

Fall 2009 will see the introducation of 3 new degrees on DEN, MS degrees in Financial Engineering; in Electrical Engineering (Electric Power) and  Green Technologies. Other growing MS majors include degrees in Medical Imaging and Informatics, Medical Device and Diagnostic Engineering, Operations Research Engineering, Transportation Engineering, Structural Design, and others.

The largest number of degrees were in Electrical Engineering (85) and Systems Architecting and Engineering (80).

About USC DEN
For 37 years, DEN has been a pioneer in distance learning, providing thousands of working professionals the opportunity to obtain their M.S. degrees in over 30 disciplines. DEN’s advanced technology allows students to view the same lectures conducted for on-campus students, transmit homework assignments, and interact with professors via chat capabilities, all from the comfort of their homes and offices. Currently, DEN has students from over 40 states, as well as from Canada and Korea, who are pursuing engineering graduate degrees online. DEN offers the widest selection of engineering graduate degrees – more than any other leading research university.  For more information, visit http://den.usc.edu

DEN graduates.click on the image to see a slide show with names and degrees.