Rensselaer’s School of Engineering is committed to technological excellence in integrating research and education and in educating for career success.

Engineers, by virtue of their education, are able to apply the laws of science effectively, economically, and creatively for the benefit of humanity.

Rensselaer, renowned for leadership and innovation in engineering education, seeks to graduate visionary and versatile professionals who will:

• Have a solid foundation in mathematics, science and engineering, and be able to apply these to practical use.
• Be able to identify, model, analyze, and solve challenging real world problems.
• Have specialized technical knowledge in their chosen field.
• Have strong communication skills with emphasis on technical writing and interpersonal communication.
• Be able to design innovative products, processes or systems.
• Perform effectively on diverse, multidisciplinary teams, both as leader and contributor.
• Be informed citizens broadly educated in the humanities and social sciences.
• Be prepared to practice engineering in a socially responsible and ethical manner.
• Have learned in a creative, stimulating environment that prepares and motivates them to continue to grow and learn.

While maintaining its strengths in traditional engineering disciplines, Rensselaer is continually revitalizing its curricula to accommodate the evolving needs of the engineer. Rensselaer’s award-winning core engineering program assures the student a non-parochial approach to technical education—providing each engineering student with a broad and solid scientific base on which to build specific technical skills, augmented by both inside and outside the classroom activities that enhance human relations skills. The School of Engineering at Rensselaer is continuously consolidating and streamlining course sequences; increasing the application of interactive learning methods, studio-based methodologies, and multimedia delivery; opening up the curricula to more multidisciplinary design, computing, and analysis courses; combining course materials so that students can learn math and science concepts within the context of engineering problems; taking steps to formally integrate topics like quality, ethics, cultural sensitivity, safety, environmental impact and entrepreneurship into courses and curricula; and, within a hands-on or discovery-based environment, ensuring that leadership, interpersonal communications, teamwork, problem formulation, system synthesis, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills are practiced and enhanced.

In addition to numerous research centers, current facilities include many classroom laboratories, the Institute’s vast computing resources, one of the largest Class 100 clean room facilities on an academic campus, a 100-ton-g centrifuge, a Linear Accelerator (LINAC), the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratories, and the student-faculty shops. Extensive interactive workstation facilities are used by all engineering students for studies in computer-aided design, analysis, and/or manufacturing. The clean rooms are where integrated circuit and interconnect technology are researched and taught. The centrifuge is used for geotechnical research and is a state-of-the-art facility. The manufacturing laboratories provide students an opportunity to design and manufacture their own product. The new 11,000 ft.2 O.T. Swanson Multidisciplinary Design Laboratory is a world-class distinctive facility consisting of state-of-the-art design space, rapid prototyping and fabrication space, and a system integration space.

Other specialized and more disciplinary-oriented facilities include laboratories in areas such as fluidization, heat transfer, biochemical engineering, biomedical engineering, structures, earthquake engineering, image processing, plasma dynamics, mechatronics, microelectronics, microwaves, electron optics, electrical machines, subsonic and supersonic flow, tribology, viscoelasticity, two-phase flow, mass spectrometry, and ion physics.

These facilities and the extensive research programs at Rensselaer offer both graduate and undergraduate students numerous opportunities for research projects. This research is supported by a variety of government (federal and state) agencies and by private industry. Of the major university engineering research programs in the United States, Rensselaer has one of the largest fractions of its support from private industry since we focus our research on topics of significant commercial interest.

The interdisciplinary nature of the 13 major research centers in which School of Engineering faculty and students are primarily involved, is such that students from each of several curricula participate in the projects of a center. For example, in the Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing (CIEEM), students from many departments (e.g., Physics; Materials Science and Engineering; Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics; Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering; and Environmental and Energy Engineering) are members of teams that conduct government and industry supported basic and applied research. Projects currently under way include multilevel interconnects, chemical-mechanical polishing, polymers for interlevel dielectrics, compound semiconductors, and programs geared toward wireless communications technology. The Electronics Agile Manufacturing Research Institute focuses on manufacturing concepts that employ flexible technologies and organizations as well as improved communications to help solve manufacturing problems. Rensselaer’s Scientific Computation Research Center (SCOREC) is world-renowned for its simulation-based engineering approach in which state-of-the-art computers and numerical models are applied to problems of great societal need.

There also is substantial research conducted outside of the major Rensselaer centers, some of which is done through multiuniversity collaboration. A major program is the Focus Center Research Program effort in microelectronic interconnects that involves Rensselaer and four other universities as well as several companies. Also, research in crystal growth is conducted aboard NASA’s Space Shuttle, and these experiments have been controlled from campus. The New York State Center for Advanced Technology features robotic research for application in manufacturing and the medical field and emphasizes technology transfer and commercialization.

There are also major centers in Infrastructure and Transportation Studies, Image Processing, Multiphase Research, and Composite Materials.

Organization   The School of Engineering is comprised of nine academic departments and 13 major research centers, three of which report to the Vice President for Research. The departments are: Biomedical Engineering; Chemical Engineering; Civil Engineering; Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems; Electric Power Engineering; Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering; Environmental and Energy Engineering; Materials Science and Engineering; and Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics. These departments have undergraduate curricula and offer both undergraduate and graduate degree programs in their fields. The School of Engineering also grants degrees in Engineering Science in which the student pursues a customized plan of study. These multidisciplinary centers are: the New York State Center for Advanced Technology; Center for Composite Materials and Structures; Electronic Agile Manufacturing Research Institute; Center for Glass Science and Technology; Center for Image Processing; Center for Integrated Electronics and Electronics Manufacturing; Center for Multiphase Research; Scientific Computation Research Center; Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies; Bioseparations Research Center; Geotechnical Centrifuge Research Center; Center for Services Research and Education; Statistical Consulting Research Center.

Degrees Offered and Associated Departments

 The Undergraduate Educational Program

 The Graduate Education Program

 Biomedical Engineering

 Chemical Engineering

 Civil Engineering

 Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems

 Electric Power Engineering

 Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering

 Engineering Science

 Environmental and Energy Engineering

 Materials Science and Engineering

 Mechanical Engineering, Aeronautical Engineering and Mechanics

 Department of Engineering at Hartford

 Programs in Manufacturing

 Center for Composite Materials and Structures

 Center for Image Processing Research

 Center for Infrastructure and Transportation Studies

 Center for Multiphase Research

 School of Engineering Course Descriptions