Aerospace Engineering

As an aerospace engineering major, you’ll learn the basics that helped the Wright brothers and others conquer the age-old problem of flight. You’ll learn how to apply these ideas to developing new types of aircraft that are better, safer, and stronger. You’ll find out how space flight works and dream up new ways of exploring galaxies unknown.

Agricultural Engineering and Bioengineering

Could the earth run out of earth? It doesn’t seem possible, but it takes thousands of years for soil to develop. This means that soil is practically a nonrenewable resource. Meanwhile, soil is being worn out by farming, polluted by chemicals, and eroded by wind and water.

If this concerns you, you’re not alone. Some agricultural engineers come up with farming practices that use soil more efficiently. Others help farmers by designing power systems, tools, and storage space. Still others use genetics to develop stronger, healthier plants. Thanks to agricultural engineering, farmers are getting better at producing safe food more efficiently while protecting the environment and using natural resources wisely.

Architectural Engineering

The Taipei Tower in Taiwan is 101 stories and 1,667 feet tall. It’s built in an area that gets hit by typhoons and earthquakes. How do you build something so tall? How do you make it safe? On the 88th floor, in the center of the tower, there’s a steel mass that weighs well over a million pounds. When strong winds blow or the earth moves dangerously, the heavy sphere absorbs the energy from the building and helps to stabilize it.

As an architectural engineering major, you’ll confront challenges like those posed by the Taipei Tower project.

Architectural engineering programs combine architecture and engineering. Majors learn about the links between design and construction. Course work covers such topics as building materials and construction methods.

Biomedical Engineering

People often compare the human body to a machine, made up of systems that work together to keep itself running. Like machines, though, pieces of the body can break down. This is where the exciting world of bioengineering comes in.

As a bioengineering major, you’ll build a foundation for a future that could take many directions. You might look for the chemical signals in the body that warn of cancer. You might invent a new and improved type of prosthetic (artificial) hand. You might refine the robots that doctors are just beginning to use in some surgery.

Chemical Engineering

Suppose you have this great recipe for chocolate ice cream. You like to make it at home for your family and friends. You make it in a little one-gallon machine that goes into your freezer. But what if you sell your recipe to a big food company? Now they have to be able to make thousands of gallons a day. Each gallon of ice cream needs to taste exactly the same and look exactly the same.

What kind of equipment could they use? How would the recipe change? How can the factory make the ice cream at low cost? These are all questions for the chemical engineer.

Civil Engineering

The first Homo sapiens who put a bunch of sticks together to get a roof over their heads were, in a way, civil engineers. Today’s civil engineers have more responsibility than ever. They build skyscrapers that reach thousands of feet in the air. They hang suspension bridges that support tons of cars and trucks each day. They create water systems that support millions of city dwellers. If you study civil engineering, you’ll learn what you need to know to work on the projects that make modern life possible.

Computer Engineering, General

Some of us drive cars with little knowledge of how they work. Others wouldn’t dream of driving a car without understanding exactly how it’s powered, how it gets them from point A to point B, and how to fix it when it breaks down.

Computer engineering students have the same philosophy about computers. They want to know how computers work -- and what they can do to make them smarter, faster, and more efficient.

Computer Software Engineering

If you’re considering a major as a computer software engineer, be prepared to begin college with an open mind about your future job. By the time you finish college, the job you imagined may be quite different or may no longer exist. On the other hand, there will be new jobs to choose from. Just think about how much computers and the software they use have evolved over the past four years.

The scientific and mathematical foundation you build in this major will always be fundamental to your work. But like other computer majors, you’ll face a lifetime of learning as you strive to keep up with changing technology.

Electrical Engineering

Imagine a blackout. You’re in the dark and without the gadgets you normally take for granted. There’s no better time to appreciate electricity.

As an electrical engineering major, you’ll go far beyond an appreciation of the awesome powers of the electron. You’ll learn how to harness that power and use it to perform a few miracles of your own invention.

Environmental Engineering

We humans have a long history of polluting our air, water, and soil. This contamination not only hurts nature, but is dangerous to people. Luckily, environmental engineers are on the job. They use math and science to clean up the messes we've made and prevent new ones from happening. For example, they might figure out how to clean up toxic material that has seeped into the ground at an old gas station or design an effective way to treat wastewater.

If you choose this major, you’ll study a wide range of subjects. Besides learning the basics of engineering, you’ll also take courses in the life and social sciences so you can understand environmental problems in all their complexity.

Industrial Engineering

How many copies of the first Harry Potter book should the corner bookstore keep on its shelf? How many people need to work the night shift at a cupcake factory in order to supply the local chain of grocery stores? Will technology stocks rise or fall over the next three months?

As an industrial engineering major, you’ll draw on math, science, business, and psychology to answer questions like these. You’ll learn how to create factory schedules, determine delivery routes, set up customer service systems, and much more.

Mechanical Engineering

Machines may not have taken over the world as imagined in some science fiction, but they are certainly a big part of life today.

Students of mechanical engineering learn about the machines that bring convenience and excitement to our lives. They study the physics that make roller coasters loop and planes fly. They learn about the properties of materials that can withstand the heat of the sun and the cold of outer space. And they discover the secrets behind control systems such as the cruise control in the family car.

Nuclear Engineering

It wasn’t long ago that scientists first began to split the atom, releasing nuclear energy in a process called fission. Now nuclear energy is used to supply electricity to homes all over the world and may someday be used to power rockets twice as fast as a space shuttle. And in medicine, radiation plays a big role, making possible everything from x-rays to treatments that destroy cancer cells.

Of course, nuclear energy also creates problems, such as the radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. As a nuclear engineering major, your studies will go beyond the basics of fission and the benefits of nuclear energy to include its challenges.