About ETSE
The Mission of the Department of Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering is to provide students with a quality engineering technology and surveying education that links theory and application, provide rigorous, fundamental education, and gives students enhanced career opportunities.
The department's goals supporting this mission are:
Engineering Technology and Surveying Engineering education places an emphasis on the practical application of engineering principles and methods. ETSE graduates have employment opportunities in areas such as product and systems development, manufacturing, technical and project management, construction, facilities planning & operation, and testing.
Our department not only provides a unique academic program, but also offers students opportunities to engage in creative activities and community outreach with their professors and fellow students. From building bridges in foreign countries with Engineers Without Borders; engaging in community projects with student designed and surveyed corn mazes for the annual The Mesilla Valley Maze; to designing, building and racing concrete canoes with the Concrete Canoe Team; our students help to build a stronger community within and without the department. They excel in rising above and beyond their potential not only as professionals but as successful and contributing members of society!
What is Engineering Technology?
Engineering technology education focuses primarily on the applied aspects of science and engineering aimed at preparing graduates for practice in that portion of the technological spectrum closest to the product improvement, manufacturing, and engineering operational functions.
Engineering technology programs are characterized by their focus on application and practice, and their approximately 50/50 mix of theory and laboratory experience. Typically, the faculty hold technical masters degrees (usually in engineering, but occasionally in engineering technology), have significant industrial experience, and many are registered professional engineers.
Engineering technologists have a wide range of careers and job positions open to them because they know how to analyze a problem, and more importantly, they know how to fix the problem.
Linking theory and application, our students take the ideas and needs in an ever-changing world of engineering & technology, and make them a reality. Hands-on courses offer our students experience in both the academic and real-world settings.
What is Surveying Engineering?
Surveying Engineering involves the application of knowledge to the analysis, design, and execution of surveying and mapping projects and the design of land mapping and information systems. Surveyors rely on an understanding of the science of surveying measurement and analysis, the legal principles of boundary location, the laws related to boundaries and land use, and applicable mathematical and computational theories and principles when performing this work. Positional accuracy, land planning and development concepts pertinent to subdivision of land and property surveys, land record and land tenure concepts as well as earth-related sciences such as geodesy are each a part of professional surveying. Surveying Engineers work for private surveying or engineering firms, for City, County, State or Federal Highway Departments, for State Lands Commissions, for the US Forest Service and for the US Bureau of Land Management.
You might also hear the term "geomatics" applied to surveying. Geomatics is widely considered to include surveying as well as many of the related "geospatial" professions such as remote sensing, photogrammetry, and Geographic and Land Information Systems (GIS/LIS). While coursework in these areas are required in the NMSU Surveying Engineering program, we have chosen to keep the name "Surveying" as this is still the most widely used term in the U.S.
The Surveying Engineering Program provides men and women with the rigorous, fundamental education needed to enter and succeed in the surveying and surveying-related professions.