What is a Packaging Science Degree?

Are you interested in a STEM career, but not sure whether to pursue an engineering degree? Perhaps you should consider the exciting field of packaging science? Here is what the Rochester Institute of Technology has to say about the degree.

Product packaging is increasingly related to total marketing concepts. It has an even greater dependence on new developments in materials and processes as eco-friendly product packaging has emerged as a growing way for companies to reduce the environmental impacts and the ecological footprints of product packaging. As a result, the packaging industry requires professionals–packaging engineers, packaging designers, product developers, and more–with a strong background in engineering, design, and business to infuse the industry with creativity and innovation.

What is packaging science?
Packaging science is a dynamic major that integrates engineering, design, and business to develop and design product packaging for a range of consumer goods. Packaging engineers and packaging designers focus on understanding the packaging needs of a product and what it must accomplish. These needs can range from maintaining food freshness and safety, keeping products safe from damage during transportation, appealing to consumers at the point of purchase, communicating product information, sustaining transportation efficiency, complying with sustainable practices for post-use recycling and reuse, and more. It’s the role of packaging engineers and packaging designers to responsibility weigh these factors into the conceptualization, design, and development of product packaging.

RIT’s Packaging Science Degree Requirements:
RIT’s packaging science degree is one of the most unique and well respected in the country. You’ll study course work in three key areas:
• Engineering: Physics, packaging materials and biopolymers, shock and vibration, packaging for pharmaceuticals and medical products.
• Design: Packaging design, protective packaging, product packaging, sustainable packaging.
• Business: Packaging for distribution, packaging and the supply chain, packaging regulations, marketing, operations, and communications.

The packaging science degree also includes extensive laboratory work. You’ll explore packaging solutions and tackle real-life problem-solving in hands-on lab assignments that take place in state-of-the-art facilities, including the Packaging Materials Lab, Packaging Science Dynamics Lab, and the American Packaging Corporation Center for Packaging Innovation.

Two blocks of required cooperative education experience in the packaging industry is also part of the curriculum. RIT’s packaging science degree is the only program in the country that requires its students to complete cooperative education.

Jobs for Packaging Engineers and Packaging Designers
RIT’s packaging science degree prepares you for employment in areas such as package development, packaging design, sales, purchasing, structural design, production, research, and marketing. The major was developed as a result of a close and long-established relationship between the packaging industry and RIT. This multi-billion-dollar industry is experiencing dynamic growth and packaging engineers and packaging designers with wide-ranging skills and expertise are in demand.

Here are some of the universities offering this degree path.

RIT visit: https://www.rit.edu/study/packaging-science-bs

Clemson University also offers this degree:
http://www.clemson.edu/degrees/packaging-science

Michigan State University has a strong program as well:
https://research.msu.edu/thinking-beyond-the-box-msu-leads-in-packaging-science/

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo offers a business degree in industrial technology and packaging:
http://catalog.calpoly.edu/collegesandprograms/orfaleacollegeofbusiness/bsindustrialtechnologypackaging/