As the spring semester started last week, the University of Missouri-Rolla became the first university in the United States to offer a minor in explosives engineering. Also new this semester, UMR is offering a demolitions course that is the first of its kind in the nation.

As the spring semester started, the University of Missouri-Rolla became the first university in the United States to offer a minor in explosives engineering. Also new this semester, UMR is offering a demolitions course that is the first of its kind in the nation.

The explosives engineering minor and the demolitions course are being offered through the UMR mining and nuclear engineering department.

"UMR is becoming the lead university in explosive engineering education at the undergraduate level in the United States," says Dr. Larry Grayson, professor of mining engineering and chair of the mining and nuclear engineering department.

The explosives engineering minor requires completion of 15 credit hours of work, achieved through the following courses: basic explosive engineering (quarry and surface mining), advanced blasting (underground, surface and construction blasting), environmental controls of blasting, instrumentation for explosives in blasting, tunneling and underground construction, commercial pyrotechnics and the newly-created demolitions class. The program also offers special topics courses and opportunities for individual research.

The demolitions course gives interested UMR students another option if other classes in the explosives lineup are full, says Grayson. The commercial pyrotechnics course was created three years ago, and has already reached its maximum capacity of students.

Dr. Paul Worsey, professor of mining engineering at UMR, and Greg Shapiro of St. Louis-based Steel Blasting will teach the demolitions course. "With the introduction of the demolitions course, students will experience the process of safely and effectively bringing down a structure," Worsey says. "Students will spend seven Saturdays at various locations, working with Steel Blasting and learning the technology and skill of demolition."

For more information about the newly-approved minor or the explosives engineering emphasis at UMR, contact the mining engineering program at (573) 341-4753 or campus.mst.edu/mining/.