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.
Technology's enormous influence on society has created a large demand for engineering graduates, not only to enter the professional practice of engineering, but also to bring 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.
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 engineering to freshmen. 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 engineering design 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. Today, the School of Engineering is responding 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, teaching applied, hands-on engineering. In 1916, it created one of the first industrial internship programs, now the David H. Koch School of Chemical Engineering Practice. In recent times, the School of Engineering has launched numerous pioneering programs, many with industry, such as Leaders for Manufacturing (1988); System Design and Management (1997); Project iCampus (1999); and in 2001, the Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation and the Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program (UPOP). UPOP is described below.
In addition to major initiatives and programs, 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 relatively new 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 program—the first entirely new curriculum established at the Institute in 29 years. 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 a nationwide educational initiative whose mission is to generate excitement about invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship through its annual awards and its outreach activities. The program awards the prestigious $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize for Invention, the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award, and the $30,000 Lemelson-MIT Student Prize. In addition to granting these awards, the program instituted InvenTeam grants to support a noncompetitive, team-based approach to invention and innovation among high school students.
The latest addition to the School of Engineering is its Office of Professional Education Programs (PEP), created in 2002 from the former Center for Advanced Educational Services (formerly the Center for Advanced Engineering Study) and the former Professional Institute. PEP is an umbrella organization for activities associated with lifelong learning. Its programs are described in Part 1 in the section Interdisciplinary Research and Study.
Today, nearly all of the School's departments are ranked at the top of their respective fields. Its eight academic departments and one division are home to the School's 375 faculty members, slightly over one-third of the Institute's total faculty. Among the most distinguished in the nation, members of the School's faculty and research staff constitute approximately five percent of the membership of the National Academy of Engineering.
Over 55 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 review the section on Interdisciplinary Research and Study in Part 1 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 broad areas of application to which their individual disciplines apply. Interdepartmental centers, laboratories, and programs involving the School's faculty and research staff provide opportunities for faculty and students 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 Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development
Center for Transportation and Logistics
Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Deshpande Center for Technological Innovation
Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems
Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems
Laboratory for Manufacturing and Productivity
Materials Processing Center
Microsystems Technology Laboratories
School of Engineering faculty also participate in the activities of other research centers and laboratories that do not reside in the School of Engineering. For more information on School of Engineering programs, centers, and laboratories, and many others across the Institute, see the section on Interdisciplinary Research and Study in Part 1.
The School of Engineering also offers a set of School-Wide Elective (SWE) subjects, each of which is of interest to students from a number of departments in the School. A School-Wide Elective 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 be the interface between the academic program of the School of Engineering and programs of other Schools at MIT; be a service subject to engineering students and other students; and be germane to many engineering students without being central to any one departmental program. Please note that registration for these 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 at the end of Part 3.
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:
Application 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 through the Office of the Dean of Engineering. Professor Dick K.P. Yue, associate dean of engineering, is the faculty director. Open to all School of Engineering sophomores, this innovative program aims to provide all engineering students the opportunity to appreciate engineering practice outside the academic context through activities emphasizing a combination of knowledge, practice, and reflection. UPOP consists of four parts: an intensive one-week engineering practice workshop offered during IAP; extensive pre-employment workshops taught by MIT alumni during the spring; 10 to 12 weeks of meaningful summer employment; and, in the following fall, assessment interviews with staff members and roundtable meetings with other UPOP students, alumni, and faculty to reflect on the summer experience.
The engineering practice workshop, led by faculty from the School of Engineering and the Sloan School of Management, focuses on the realities of engineering practice and emphasizes fundamental abilities: applying technical skills, communication, teamwork, leadership, and self-awareness. The curriculum has been designed to be highly interactive, involving students in case studies, simulations, and role-play. Students receive three units of academic credit upon successful completion of the course.
The UPOP Summer Practice Experience allows students to gain experience in the entire job cycle, from recruiting to the actual job experience, and is followed by the assessment and reflection process. The UPOP staff helps facilitate the matching of students and employers for 10- to 12-week internships in traditional and start-up companies, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies. Students are required to keep a journal during their internship. Upon completion of the summer practice, both students and employers complete assessments of the summer experience and the program as a whole, and students receive one unit of academic credit.
Students are paid directly by their employer companies for the summer internships. The companies do not pay UPOP any fees, and there are no obligations on either side regarding further employment.
Additional information on the program may be obtained from the Engineering department in which the student is registered or from Christopher Resto, director, Undergraduate Practice Opportunities Program, MIT, Room 12-188, Cambridge, MA 02139, 617-452-5099, fax 617-253-8457; email cresto@mit.edu, or visit http://web.mit.edu/engineering/upop/.
Subra Suresh, ScD
Ford Professor of Engineering
Professor of Materials Science and Engineering and Biological Engineering
Affiliated Faculty, Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology
Dean
Dick K.P. Yue, ScD
Professor of Hydrodynamics
Associate Dean
Eileen Ng-Ghavidel, MBA
Assistant Dean for Finance and Personnel
Donna R. Savicki, MA
Assistant Dean for Administration
Deborah Cohen, MS
Senior Director of Development and Communications
Catherine Avril, MA, MS
Director of Communications
Dedric Carter, PhD
Executive Director of Engineering Outreach Programs
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