Undergraduate Programs Guide
Note of Introduction
Mission Statements
"The mission of Brown University is to serve the community, the nation, and the world by discovering, communicating, and preserving knowledge and understanding in a spirit of free inquiry, and by educating and preparing students to discharge the offices of life with usefulness and reputation.
We do this through a partnership of students and teachers in a unified community known as a University-college."
In support of the University's overall mission, the three-fold mission statement of the Division of Engineering is:
- to equip students with a solid foundation for productive careers
- to advance the knowledge base for future technologies
- to merge teaching, scholarship, and practice in the pursuit of solutions to human needs
The Brown Engineering Curriculum - the Big Picture
Our society needs engineers who can lead in an increasingly competitive, fully-integrated, world economy. Engineering today needs to be understood, not as merely providing workers with valuable technical training, but as the discipline that brings a deep understanding of physical principles, material behavior, mathematical modeling, and engineering practices to the solution of current problems that challenge our society. Moreover, these contributions must be made with full involvement in the economic, environmental, political, and ethical implications. Preparing engineers for such difference-making careers is Brown's challenge and its responsibility. These goals are made possible only by the high potential of students who choose to study here and by our highly committed faculty.
Innovation in science and technology has been the dominant source of growth in the U.S. economy for decades, transforming scientific know-how into new products and processes with tremendous societal impact. Today's radically new and emerging technologies have the potential to create entirely new industries and to render established ones obsolete. Brown's Engineering Curriculum is guided by a forward-thinking philosophy that we believe prepares students to meet current and future challenges.
Engineering is the profession for people who want to:
- make a big difference;
- create something that improves people's lives;
- develop solutions to problems that impact our well-being;
- shape policies that address such major problem areas as energy, environment, health, transportation, communication, and utilization of natural resources.
To prepare students for leadership in such a profession, Brown offers an Engineering Curriculum for the Bachelor of Science (Sc.B.) degree that:
- encourages students to commit to lifelong learning in order to address new societal needs and to take advantage of rapid advances in science and technology;
- enables students to explore through a two-year core curriculum that covers the essential elements of mathematics, computing, chemistry, materials, mechanics, electricity and magnetism, thermodynamics, and experimentation in order to develop a firm foundation in the fundamentals that underlie the practice of engineering;
- allows for maximum flexibility by making it possible for students to wait until the end of their second year to choose their concentration in a particular field of engineering;
- follows the core with two years of study in one of the primary engineering fields, with increasing emphasis on real-world applications and design;
- addresses the whole education of a student in order to prepare graduates to have the leadership and communication skills to meet high impact goals of the type bulleted above (the equivalent of nearly three of a student's eight semesters can be used to take advantage of the excellent courses in the arts, humanities and social sciences);
- supports the development of creative abilities through design projects in nearly all courses, and through opportunities for research experience ? both on sponsored research projects and on independent study projects;
- prepares students to work in an interdisciplinary setting, as required in the workplace, because of the inherently multidisciplinary nature of many of today's problems - this preparation is a natural outcome of studying and working in the highly collaborative, interdisciplinary environment at Brown, facilitated by the lack of traditional departmental boundaries within Engineering.
We recognize that students with interests in less technically-oriented engineering careers, or even in non-engineering professions, may not be interested in the Bachelor of Science degree and may be better-served by the Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree options described in this booklet. In this regard it is interesting to note that the National Academy of Engineering recently published a book, The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century, which posits that by 2020 the engineering degree will surpass the liberal arts degree as the degree-of-choice in preparing for other professions. <http://www.nap.edu/books/0309091624/html/> In particular, an engineering degree is viewed as providing an excellent foundation for business, marketing, law, and medicine. Moreover, analytical problem-solving approaches learned in engineering can be of value in any career.
Whether you are interested in an Sc.B. degree or an A.B. degree, our faculty is committed to helping you realize your educational objectives.
Rod Clifton, Interim Dean of Engineering
