Engineering the Future

Utah State University's College of Engineering is developing the new technologies and services that improve tomorrow's economy and environment. Students in the college participate in world-renowned programs and are engaged in a variety of hands-on research projects.

Students from USU's Engineers Without Borders club traveled the world during the past year by raising their own funds to visit Tibet and Peru. Mentored by USU civil and environmental engineering faculty members William Grenney and Laurie McNeill, the students helped provide wells with clean water and proper sanitation conveniences for a small village outside Lima, Peru. In Tibet, the team visited six rural villages and evaluated housing needs, sampled water supplies and worked with the local school for nomad children.

A group of mechanical engineering and electrical engineering students designed and built an electrical snowmobile with zero on-sight emissions and a quiet motor. The students competed in the seventh annual Clean Snowmobile Challenge in Michigan during spring break 2006, against 15 other schools to see who had the greenest machine. The National Science Foundation will use the sled in the summer of 2006 as a way to get around polar ice caps in Greenland without polluting the area.

The Utah Water Research Laboratory, run by the college, is known around the world for providing technical expertise and training services related to international water resources and environmental problems. In 2006, as the UWRL celebrates its 40th birthday, the lab works on nearly 250 water-related projects a year and has an annual budget nearing $10 million. With projects in all of Utah's 29 counties and more than 40 international countries, the lab has become one of the go-to places that addresses the technical and societal aspects of water-related issues, including quality, quantity and distribution of water.

The research opportunities, combined with excellent professors committed to education and a student-to-faculty ration of 14 to 1, ensure student success at the university and beyond. Students graduating from the college consistently have a 96 percent pass rate on the National Fundamentals Engineering Exam on the first try, while the national average is only 55 percent.

With expertise in irrigation engineering, engineered biological systems, intelligent infrastructure, environmental sustainability, engineering and technology education, sensory extension and advanced materials manufacturing, students can pursue degrees in several emphases in engineering.

Degrees are offered in biological engineering, civil engineering, environmental engineering, computer engineering, electrical engineering, irrigation engineering, mechanical engineering, engineering and technology education and aviation technology.