Fire Protection Engineering: New Associated Partner in Intl. M.S. Program

The University of Maryland’s (UMD) Department of Fire Protection Engineering (FPE) has joined the consortium of the International Master of Science in Fire Safety Engineering (IMFSE) program as an associated partner. IMFSE students will now have the opportunity to pursue their M.S. thesis research at UMD under the mentorship of FPE faculty members.

The IMFSE program is a collaboration between Ghent University in Belgium, the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and Lund University in Sweden. Over the course of two years, students spend their first and third semesters at Ghent’s Department of Flow, Heat and Combustion Mechanics or Edinburgh’s Department of Fire Safety Engineering, and their second at Lund’s Division of Fire Safety Engineering. In their fourth and final semester, students choose to perform their M.S. thesis research at either one of these three full partner universities or at one of the program’s associated partners: the University of Queensland in Australia, ETH Zurich in Switzerland, and now at UMD. Since its launch in 2010, the IMFSE program has enrolled 100 students from over 50 countries.

“Our agreement with the IMFSE program provides a strong collaborative framework between our department and Europe’s top three academic institutions in fire safety engineering,” says Professor Arnaud Trouvé, FPE’s Director of Graduate Studies. “This will both increase our international visibility and allow our faculty to join an established network of leaders in fire protection engineering education and research. It provides a mechanism for FPE to host IMFSE students, and also provides new opportunities for our own students to have a similar experience in Europe.”

“FPE has established itself as a leader in the area of graduate education and research in fire safety engineering,” adds FPE Professor and Chair Jim Milke. “Our partnership with the IMFSE will promote teaching and research exchanges with world-class colleagues at some of our top peer institutions. This is an important move at a time when new fire science programs are emerging around the world and will ultimately lead to higher levels of competition.”

The IMFSE is financially supported by the Erasmus+ Programme for international higher education.

To learn more about the IMFSE program, visit www.imfse.ugent.be.
To learn more about the Department of Fire Protection Engineering, visit fpe.umd.edu.

Published September 9, 2015