The student experience

The College of Engineering is one of the best places in the world to get an engineering education. We have excellent students. We have world-class faculty. We have an outstanding curriculum. As one professor said, “Our students learn how to do stuff.”

We do more than teach students. We immerse them in interdisciplinary activities and offer real-world design challenges. We introduce them to experts in their fields. And we provide them the technological tools and resources that will prepare them to meet twenty-first-century engineering needs.

In the classroom and in the lab, engineering students study and work hard—yet they also have rich social lives that include myriad extracurricular activities. Student life and learning in engineering offer exciting choices: international study, field research, internships, laboratory experience, entrepreneurial opportunities, and more.

The college is internationally renowned for its research, and students at all levels have the opportunity to work directly with faculty, to propose and conduct research, and to publish and patent their results. Working in interdisciplinary teams, engineering students address real-world challenges—and actually design and build products that solve those challenges. They learn to present their ideas, pitch their products and launch successful companies.

Students also can join any of more than 55 registered engineering student organizations! These orgs offer experiences ranging from international automotive competitions to student chapters of engineering professional societies. Through them, our students build and race everything from concrete canoes to electric snowmobiles. They conduct community service and educational outreach. They host and attend national professional engineering conferences. And, through organizations such as Engineering World Health and Engineers Without Borders, they help residents of communities worldwide to use low-cost medical devices and implement sustainable engineering solutions.

Annually, approximately 130 engineering students live, learn, work and serve abroad via our International Engineering Studies and Programs, internship and co-op programs, student organizations, and the chemical engineering summer course program.

A College of Engineering education not only offers students the time of their life—it prepares students for life in the real world.

Your world.

Samples of student excellence

• 201—Students who studied, worked or served abroad in the 2010-2011 academic year

• 31—Countries they visited

• 116 students on co-op—fall 2010

• 109 students on co-op—spring 2011
• 205 students on co-op—summer 2011
• 438 students on internships—summer 2011

• 2010 fall Career Connection—Thousands of students talked with recruiters from more than 220 local, state and national corporations

• 2011 spring Career Connection—Despite a campus-closing blizzard, the event drew more than 120 employers

• 2003—Formed at UW-Madison
• 2005—Earned international recognition: The prestigious United Nations and Daimler Mondialogo Engineering Award for efforts to help build basic infrastructure in Rwanda
• 2009—Received Mondialogo Engineering Award for efforts to help build basic infrastructure in rural Haiti

• More than 80 active members
• Project partnerships with residents of Rwanda, Haiti, El Salvador, Kenya and Red Cliff, Wisconsin