Technology's enormous influence on society has created a large demand for engineering graduates, not only in the professional practice of engineering, but also in bringing the strengths of an engineering education to related fields such as law, medicine, management, and government. Never have the challenges and opportunities for careers in engineering been more exciting or more critical to the long-term well-being of society than they are today.
By creating, developing, organizing, and managing complex technologies and products, engineers play a crucial role in contributing to the betterment of humanity and in shaping our world. Seeking solutions to the most difficult challenges of our day in the context of physical, economic, human, political, legal, and cultural realities makes engineering a tremendously exciting endeavor. In a world increasingly influenced by scientific and technological innovation, engineers can provide important leadership to society.
The first-year curriculum for undergraduates includes physics, chemistry, mathematics, biology, and the humanities, arts, and social sciences. An undergraduate student normally becomes affiliated with a particular department at the beginning of the sophomore year and works closely with an advisor from that department or program. A student who would like to explore engineering as a major is encouraged to become involved with one of the engineering departments as early as the freshman year. Nearly every engineering department offers exciting subjects that introduce freshmen to engineering. Freshman Advising Seminars bring students together in small groups with engineering faculty. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Projects (UROPs) are a great way to delve into cutting-edge engineering research. Extracurricular clubs, such as the MIT Rocket Team or the Solar Electric Vehicle Team, offer students hands-on experiences.
Once a student chooses an undergraduate major, there are many opportunities for individual initiatives. For example, a significant number of students combine their primary undergraduate degrees with a second undergraduate degree in another area, such as management, political science, economics, one of the sciences, or another area of engineering. Others organize their programs so that they can receive undergraduate and graduate degrees simultaneously. A series of minor programs from across the Institute is also available.
Engineering education has been at the core of the Institute's mission since its founding in 1861. MIT created the contemporary model of engineering education grounded in a dynamic, changing base of science; and pioneered the modern model of the research university, with externally sponsored research programs and a matrix of academic departments and research laboratories working across disciplines. MIT also created entire new fields, for example, chemical engineering, sanitary engineering, naval architecture and marine engineering, and the first course in aeronautical engineering. More recently, the School of Engineering has responded with new degree programs to the molecular and genomic revolutions that have made biology a foundational science for engineering.
The School has distinguished itself as a leader in engineering education, where the teaching of applied, hands-on engineering is of the utmost importance. In 1916, it created one of the first industrial internship programs, now the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice. Over the last several decades, the School of Engineering has launched numerous pioneering programs, many with industry, such as Leaders for Global Operations, formerly Leaders for Manufacturing (1988); System Design and Management (1997); the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (both in 2001); and the Bernard M. Gordon–MIT Engineering Leadership Program (2008).
The School of Engineering is constantly innovating in engineering education, developing novel pedagogical approaches, designing new subject offerings that strengthen current programs, and creating new disciplines, fields of study, majors, and graduate programs. Two examples are the SB in Chemical-Biological Engineering—MIT's first undergraduate engineering degree with modern molecular biology as its core science; and, begun in 2005-2006, the SB in Biological Engineering. Five other new degree programs have been launched in the past five years: the SB in Mechanical and Ocean Engineering, MEng in Manufacturing, SM in Computation for Design and Optimization, PhD in Computational and Systems Biology, and PhD in Engineering Systems.
Because of its unique role in technological innovation, the School of Engineering is also the home of the Lemelson-MIT Program. Established in 1994, the program is an educational initiative whose mission is to recognize outstanding inventors as role models, encourage sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enable and inspire youth to pursue creative lives and careers through invention. It accomplishes this through annual awards, grants, and outreach activities, including the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Award for Sustainability, and $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams is the program's national initiative to inspire a new generation of inventors among high school students through grants that support a noncompetitive, team-based approach to learning and problem solving.
Today, six of the School's departments are ranked at the top of their respective fields, and the others are ranked within the top five. Its eight academic departments and one division are home to 372 faculty members, slightly over one-third of the Institute's total faculty. Among the most distinguished in the nation, nearly a third (117) of the School's current and emeritus faculty and research staff have been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering.
Almost 60 percent of MIT undergraduates with declared majors and more than 45 percent of all graduate students are in the School of Engineering.
Within the School of Engineering, a student may develop a program that satisfies his or her own intellectual and professional objectives. A student interested in an interdepartmental program should study the departmental descriptions and Part 3, Interdisciplinary Programs, for opportunities that combine disciplines from MIT's four other schools with those of the School of Engineering.
While the School's academic departments and divisions provide continuity and stability for the basic engineering disciplines, they increasingly share interests in the way their individual disciplines are applied. Interdepartmental centers, laboratories, and programs provide opportunities for faculty, students, and research staff to undertake collaborative research and engage in educational programs dealing with these and other interdisciplinary applications of importance to society.
Interdisciplinary centers and laboratories that reside in the School of Engineering include the following:
Center for Computational Engineering
Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development
Center for Transportation and Logistics
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity
Materials Processing Center
Microsystems Technology Laboratories
Transportation@MIT
School of Engineering faculty members also participate in the activities of other research centers and laboratories that are administered outside the School of Engineering. For more information, see the section on Interdisciplinary Research and Study in Part 3.
The School of Engineering also offers a set of School-Wide Elective (SWE) subjects. An SWE subject may integrate knowledge from several disciplines and illustrate the commonality of the intellectual underpinnings of the departments in the School of Engineering. An SWE subject may also be the interface between an academic program in the School of Engineering and a program in another School at MIT; it may be a service subject to engineering students and other students; and it may be germane to many engineering students without being central to any one departmental program. Please note that registration for SWE subjects takes place through one of the departmental numbers. For complete subject descriptions and a list of the departmental numbers for each SWE subject, refer to the SWE subject listings in the online MIT Subject Listing & Schedule, http://student.mit.edu/catalog/index.cgi.
Undergraduate SWE subjects include the following:
Introduction to Modeling and Simulation
Inventions and Patents
Management in Engineering
UPOP IAP Workshop
UPOP Summer Practice Experience
UPOP Reflective Learning Experience
Graduate SWE subjects include:
Applications of Technology in Energy and the Environment (H-level graduate credit)
Engineering Systems Analysis for Design (H-level graduate credit)
Engineering Risk-Benefit Analysis (H-level graduate credit)
Innovation Teams
The Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP) is sponsored by the School of Engineering and administered by the Bernard M. Gordon–MIT Engineering Leadership Program. Open to all School of Engineering sophomores (on a first-come, first-served basis), this innovative program aims to provide engineering students with an opportunity to appreciate engineering practice outside the academic context through experiential learning that emphasizes the professional awareness, skills, and attitudes required to thrive in the world of engineering work.
UPOP has four components: an intensive one-week engineering practice workshop offered during IAP; extensive individual coaching and several pre-employment workshops taught during the sophomore fall and spring terms; 10 to 12 weeks of meaningful summer employment; and, in the following fall, a series of written and oral reflection exercises, including assessment interviews with staff members and roundtable meetings with other UPOP students, alumni, and faculty to reflect on the summer experience.
Additional information on the program can be obtained from Susann Luperfoy, executive director, Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, 617-253-0055, luperfoy@mit.edu, or http://web.mit.edu/engineering/upop/.
Subra Suresh, ScD
Vannevar Bush Professor of Engineering
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and
Biological Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Dean
Cynthia Barnhart, PhD
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Codirector, Operations Research Center
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
Karen Gleason, PhD
Alexander and I. Michael Kasser Professor of Chemical Engineering
Associate Dean for Research
Dedric Carter, PhD
Assistant Dean for Development and Strategic Initiatives
Eileen Ng-Ghavidel, MBA
Assistant Dean for Finance and Personnel
Donna R. Savicki, MA
Assistant Dean for Administration
Deborah Cohen, MS
Senior Development Officer
Chad Galts, MA
Director of Communications
Barbara Masi, PhD
Director of Education Innovation and Assessment
Brian Tavares, BSBA
Senior Financial Officer
Nicholas A. Ashford, JD, PhD
Professor of Technology and Policy
Timothy Berners-Lee
3Com Founders Professor of Engineering