COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

The College of Engineering was founded when the University of Arizona was established in 1885. For more than 125 years, UA College of Engineering alumni have explored, shaped and made habitable the world, indeed the universe, in which we live.

Today, graduates of the College are entrepreneurs who develop high-tech companies, create jobs, and improve our quality of life. An engineering education provides the research to build new industries and the knowledge for those who run them.

Engineers help people, and engineering programs at the UA College of Engineering have enormous breadth and far-reaching social consequences. Among many other things, students and faculty design new retinas for damaged eyes, affordable water purification systems for third world countries stricken by drought, environmentally sustainable manufacturing methods, hybrid cars and solar energy systems, bio-sensors that detect and keep people out of life-threatening danger, optical imaging systems for cancer detection, data collection and decision support systems for the military, and buildings that can withstand earthquakes and other major events.

Dean: Jeff Goldberg, Ph.D.

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College Features

The College of Engineering offers 13 undergraduate engineering majors.

• In 2010, the College of Engineering received $30 million in research funding awards.
• The College of Engineering graduate program is ranked 26th in the nation among public universities.
• College program rankings for 2011 from U.S. News & World Report include:
  • Aerospace engineering - 27th out of 56
  • Biomedical engineering – 47th of 95
  • Civil engineering – 41st of 139th
  • Chemical engineering – 53rd of 125
  • Computer engineering – 42nd of 139
  • Electrical engineering – 35th of 173
  • Environmental engineering – 34th of 98
  • Industrial engineering – 26th of 75
  • Materials engineering – 45th of 93
  • Mechanical engineering – 48th of 163
     
• The College of Engineering is committed to the academic success and retention of women in engineering: programs at the college include the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Women in Science and Engineering (WISE).
• The College of Engineering and the Office of Study Abroad collaborate to offer engineering students unique opportunities to study abroad: Pay UA tuition and study engineering while experiencing another culture.
• Student-run project clubs such as the UA Baja Racing Team and the UA Formula Racing Club design, build, and race off-road vehicles, solar cars and formula race cars in international competition. Other student chapters of professional organizations, such as the Aerial Robotics Club and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), actively design, build and fly airplanes.

College Statistics

Faculty

• 120 tenured and tenure-eligible faculty
• 13 Members of the National Academy of Engineering (since 1968)
• 3 UA Regents’ Professors
• 3 University Distinguished Professors

Students Enrolled

• 2,264 undergraduates
• 621 graduates

Degrees Awarded (Academic Year 2010)

• 478 bachelor's
• 81 master’s
• 40 Ph.D.'s

Undergraduate Diversity (Fall 2010)

• 19% female
• 31% minority

Notable Alumni

• Ray Oglethorpe, Former AOL President
• Alan Boeckmann, President, Fluor Corporation
• Chris Lewicki, Phoenix Mission Manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory
• Don Pettit, NASA Astronaut
• Don Felsinger, CEO, Sempra Energy (Fortune 500)
• John Somerhalder, CEO, AGL Resources
• Richard “Dick” Scobee, NASA Astronaut, Challenger spacecraft
• Bill Mensch, Microprocessor inventor and CEO/Founder Western Design Center
• David Allais, inventor of the bar code
• j. David Lowell, Exploration geologist
• Justine Schluntz, NCAA champion swimmer and Rhodes Scholar