Undergraduate Program Tour
Educating students to meet society's needs
Society is placing increasing demand on our graduates to apply their skills in new contexts. Further, it is placing increasing value on engineers who can cross traditional boundaries between disciplines, and who can evaluate intelligently the broader consequences of their actions. The flexibility of our curriculum allows a new breed of students to prepare for 21st century careers. In addition, we do afford our students opportunities to develop their creative talents in the capstone design courses, open-ended undergraduate projects, and Senior Honors Research Projects.
Each student must complete at least one capstone design course and most complete two. In addition, about one half of our students do at least one undergraduate project. The capstone design courses and undergraduate projects are intended to enhance the student's repertoire of professional problem solving and engineering design skills in the context of realistic engineering situations. In the capstone design courses, the engineering students work in teams to formulate the problem, propose an engineering solution or a design in the presence of technical and socioeconomic constraints, and make sound professional judgments among alternative solutions. The idea is that if a student is to learn to practice engineering, he/she must be provided with opportunities to practice these arts under guidance.
Selected paths of study
While our program is a rich and comprehensive experience, those wishing to augment their ECE degree may choose to pursue double degrees, double majors, or minors.
The B.S. in ECE has been taken with many other programs at CMU as part of a double degree. Such programs include:
- B.F.A. in Music
- B.S. in Computer Science
- B.S. in Economics
- B.S. in Materials Science
- B.S. in Philosophy
- B.S. in Physics
- B.S. in Spanish
Others have chosen to earn double majors, pairing the B.S. in ECE with programs such as:
- B.S. in Biomedical and Health Engineering
- B.S. in Cognitive Science
- B.S. in Computer Science
- B.S. in Economics
- B.S. in Engineering and Public Policy
- B.S. in Mathematics
- B.S. in Philosophy
- B.S. in Social History
By taking specified technical and free elective courses, students can also qualify for minors such as Art, Biomedical Engineering, Biomedical and Health Engineering, Business Administration, Chinese, Communication Design, Computer Science, Electronic Materials, Film and Digital Imaging, History, Japanese, Mathematical Sciences, Music, Music Performance, Policy and Management, Psychology, and Robotics.
About 30% of our seniors annually graduate with University Honors for having maintained a minimum 3.5/4.0 GPA. About 20% percent graduate with College Honors for having completed an intensive Senior Honors Research Project. Each year, several students win prizes for outstanding Senior Honors Research and Undergraduate Projects at the annual Meeting of the Minds.