U of A launches new business-engineering degree

“That allowed me to work hard, roll my sleeves and dive myself into following the rules, being honest, treating people as the same way you want to be treated,” he said. "Investing in education for any parents is the best investment you can make in your life."

Today, as founder and CEO of Aeronautical Systems Incorporated, he's proving his point — investing $10 million, with his wife Mary Rodriguez, in the University of Arizona.

The UA launched a new integrated business and engineering program Tuesday thanks to the donation, at a ceremony attended by Gov. Katie Hobbs, U.S. Sens. Ruben Gallego and Mark Kelly, Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, state Rep. Alma Hernandez, and Raytheon President Barbara Borgonovi.

It's the only undergraduate program of its kind in Arizona, university officials said, providing "a solid foundation in technical problem-solving and strategic management, blending engineering design, software, artificial intelligence, and biomedical devices with business analytics, accounting, marketing and entrepreneurship."

“This program is quintessentially Arizona, because we are a state that builds,” Hobbs said.

“In Arizona, we build the most advanced semiconductors in the North American hemisphere. We are quickly becoming the semiconductor capital of the world as we attract and grow businesses at every level of the semiconductor supply chain,” she continued.

“We make Apache helicopters and cutting-edge drone technology, and we build the parts that send Americans into space at companies like Honeywell Aerospace and Northrop Grumman, and that is just part of the exciting and dynamic ecosystem you are stepping into and growing today," the governor said. 

Kelly, who studied marine and aeronautical engineering, was a Navy pilot and test pilot, and also an astronaut who spent 15 years at NASA. He said he knows engineers think they can solve all problems by themselves. “That turns out not to be true,” he said, inciting laughter from the audience.

“When you’re trying to land a fighter jet on an aircraft carrier or send a crew into space, you do need engineers,” he said. “You need a lot of them, but you also need scientists, you need technicians, you need mission planners. You also need people who understand budgets and schedules and logistics and financing and how to lead a team. That’s as critical.” 

Karthik Kannan, dean of the UA's Eller College of Management, said the new program gives undergraduate students the opportunity to learn technical expertise and business leadership skills together. 

Kannan said he and David Hahn, the former Craig M. Berge dean of UA’s College of Engineering, felt a need for a collaboration between the two colleges. 

“Personally, engineering provided me with a technical and structured way of thinking about problems, but real-world problems often need you to create some structure, but there is also a human element to it,” said Kannan, who studied engineering in India and the U.S., got a Ph.D. from a public policy school here, and has also had experience at a business school.

"With this (program), economical understanding of things and human behavior, psychological understanding of things — all of those come in together,” he said. 

Aaron Zeldin, a freshman UA student from Tucson who’s enrolled in the new program, said he’s always been pretty good at math and that combining the business and engineering aspects is the perfect program for him.

“I like engineering, but I’m excited to learn about the business aspect because I don’t really know that much stuff about it,” Zeldin said. “I think (this program) benefits me. It’s shorter school because it’s a four-year degree. So, after four years, I’m ready to go into my career rather than having to spend four years of engineering and coming back for four more years of business.”

Zeldin said he’s interested in working in roles that combine critical skills from both the engineering side and the business end. 

Felipe Rodriguez agreed that engineering and business are two disciplines that don’t need to be separate, and that the problems of today don’t relate to single disciplines but are multi-disciplinary.

His company, which he founded in 1988, provides military fleets with “specialized services in system and component repair and overhaul, manufacturing, supply chain management, and aeronautical engineering,” its website says. Mary Rodriguez handles the company's charitable giving program, which supports local education initiatives with a focus on engineering and technical education.

Felipe and Mary Rodriguez, who have a son who graduated from the UA with a degree in finance, said their conversations with the engineering and business school leaders began while visiting the university during parents’ weekend. Mary Rodriguez said they were so impressed with the colleges’ work that they continued to have more conversations that led to the investment.

UA President Suresh Garimella said the couple’s generous investment "will shape UA’s trajectory for generations.”

"Students will work alongside industry partners … and they’ll build both technological and strategic skills that employers tell us and have told us for a while that they need most," Garimella said. "The era of silos and specialization is being replaced here with one that demands critical thinking and resilience, regardless of the industry.”