MANKATO — A new agreement with two-year colleges in Minnesota’s Iron Range area will allow engineering students to work directly with real-world engineers while earning a four-year mechanical engineering degree from Minnesota State University.

MSU announced the agreement Friday and introduced Dan Ewert, a North Dakota State University professor, as the man who will run the program. Students will spend up to three days each week working with engineers at Iron Range businesses, and two days in a classroom at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College. It will be known as the Arrowhead University Consortium Iron Range Engineering program.

Ewert currently is chair of North Dakota State University’s Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering.

Students in the program will attend classes at Mesabi Range Community and Technical College, which has campuses in Eveleth and Virginia. They’ll also hear lectures and work in Iron Range manufacturing plants including Northshore Mine, PolyMet and the Soudan Underground Laboratory.

The five colleges partnering with Minnesota State are Hibbing Community College, Itasca Community College in Grand Rapids, Mesabi Range Community and Technical College, Rainy River Community College in International Falls and Vermilion Community College in Ely.

Fifteen students are in the program this fall. Officials expect 25 to register next fall and each fall thereafter. Faculty from participating institutions will teach the classes.

Students from the program were on campus about a month ago to register for ID cards. And they’ll be back occasionally for lab exercises, says John Knox, dean of the College of Science, Engineering and Technology.

Knox says this is one of the ways people are changing their thinking about education. The students in this program will have very little in the way of traditional college learning. Nearly all of what they learn will come from their on-the-job projects.

But they’ll still be required to demonstrate proficiencies in areas governed by the university and its accrediting agencies in order to get their degree.

“We are very concerned that they get the material and have competency in mechanical engineering,” Knox said. “One of the biggest tasks we have is trying to assess these students.”

That’s where Ewert comes in. Knox said Ewert’s experiencing in working under these kinds of conditions is one of the reasons he got the job.

“It’s going to be a challenge for the program director,” Knox said of Ewert. “We’re putting a lot of trust in him, and he’ll have a lot of pressure on him.”

The program was funded by an initial $50,000 contribution from the Minnesota Center for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence, and a $1.1 million grant from the Iron Range Resources Board.

With Ewert’s hiring, the partners hope to solidify a new program they are excited about.

“This new approach is a national model for engineering schools,” said MSU President Richard Davenport. “Dan Ewert has devoted his career to hands-on, cross-disciplinary teaching methods that produce engineers who make a difference in business and industry.”

Ewert has won several awards for innovative business planning and professional excellence in teaching. A biomedical engineering specialist, Ewert developed and teaches an advanced cardiovascular engineering class where students work as a team on real-life projects.