Michigan Mobility Institute Partners with Wayne State University to Develop Advanced Mobility Curriculum

The Michigan Mobility Institute has announced Detroit-based Wayne State University’s College of Engineering as its inaugural education partner to develop an advanced mobility educational curriculum.
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Wayne State University
The Michigan Mobility Institute has partnered with WSU to develop an advanced mobility curriculum. // Photo courtesy of Wayne State University

The Michigan Mobility Institute has announced Detroit-based Wayne State University’s College of Engineering as its inaugural education partner to develop an advanced mobility educational curriculum.

Over the coming months, the organizations will develop programming expected to power new mobility careers around the world.

“The Michigan Mobility Institute represents an ideal partner for the outstanding faculty and students in the college to contribute to the future of mobility for the city, the state, and the nation,” says Keith Whitfield, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wayne State.

In January, the Boston Consulting Group and the Detroit Mobility Lab, the institute’s sister organization, found that national demand for engineering graduates with required skills for mobility careers could be up to six times greater than the expected supply.

Autonomous driving, connectivity, and electrification are slated to create more than 100,000 industry jobs in the next decade, including up to 30,000 for engineers with computer-related degrees.

“We’ve always envisioned that partnerships would be the best way to deliver on the institute’s mission,” says Jessica Robinson, executive director of the Michigan Mobility Institute. “In bringing industry and academia together, we can accelerate workforce development, upskilling programs, and post-secondary degrees.

“From our first meeting, it was immediately clear that Dean (Farshad) Fotouhi thought differently about how to meet students’ needs for technology-based careers. We’ve been thrilled to get to know some of his professors and students and see strong alignment with our vision of a multi-disciplinary approach.”

WSU is one of six public universities in the U.S. to have received the highest Carnegie Foundation ratings for both research intensiveness and community engagement. The College of Engineering currently offers a graduate certificate in cyber-physical systems, a program in electric-drive vehicle engineering, and a newly developed master’s degree in data science and business analytics.

“For the past 100 years, Detroit has been a home for mobility innovation. This partnership holds tremendous promise to extend our region’s dominance on this front into the 21st century and beyond,” says Kim Trent, chair of the WSU board of governors. “I couldn’t be more thrilled that the futurists behind the Detroit Mobility Lab and the Michigan Mobility Institute have chosen Wayne State as their partner. This institute will make our university a world-leading center for cutting-edge thinking and leadership for this critically important emerging sector.”