Power and Energy Certificate

The Graduate Certificate in Power and Energy provides students with state of the art knowledge in power and energy areas and aims to produce well trained graduates in Power and Energy areas. It is anticipated that there will be a substantial shortage of power and energy professionals in the national labor force in the near future. To help train more power and energy engineers, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued a call for proposals on power and energy workforce training in December 2009. The Pigman College of Engineering was awarded a grant to create a Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky (PEIK) to train the next generation of power and energy professionals. As part of the proposal, we offer the Graduate Certificate in Power and Energy. In close collaboration with industry, the institute combines existing UK Pigman College of Engineering power engineering courses with newly created courses to provide students with an attractive, clearly-marked pathway into the power engineering workforce.

Admission Requirements

• The Certificate Director will be responsible for the certificate curriculum and matters such as: admission to and successful completion of the graduate certificate by students, enforcement of certificate requirements, maintenance of records, advising students on electives, and so forth.
• Students who already are or will be enrolled in a degree program, or those who simply apply for post-baccalaureate (non-degree) status in order to complete the certificate, are eligible to apply for admission. The certificate director may limit admissions so that faculty and other resources available are not overwhelmed.
• The minimum requirements for admission to the graduate certificate curriculum are the same as those for post-baccalaureate status. Applications for admission to the Graduate Certificate will be reviewed by the certificate director, who will notify the Graduate School in writing of the student’s admission. A student is encouraged to apply and be admitted to the certificate curriculum prior to taking any classes that will be counted towards completion of the certificate.

Certificate Requirements

• As required by the Graduate School, a student must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.0 in the set of courses required for completion of the graduate certificate.
• Certificate curriculum courses taken at graduate level by a student (undergraduate or graduate) before being admitted to the certificate curriculum will count toward the completion of the certificate.
• Graduate courses taken at other universities that are transferrable to UK may be counted toward the completion of the certificate at the discretion of the Certificate Director. Students can take two tracks to fulfill the certificate requirements.  

The Graduate Certificate in Power and Energy offers two tracks: Track 1 - Training through Course Work; and Track 2 - Training through Course Work and Research.