The Harvey Mudd College engineering program prepares its students for the professional world and advanced study in various disciplines through broad-based, hands-on experience in engineering analysis, synthesis and practice.
The program, designed to produce graduates who are exceptionally competent and whose work is notable for its breadth and technical excellence, emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving. Based on the premise that design is the distinguishing feature of engineering, it includes applied research as early as students’ first year, a curriculum covering applied sciences, systems, and design and professional practice, as well as the Clinic Program—an internationally recognized model of experiential learning.
Engineering majors, who leave Harvey Mudd fully aware of the impact of their work on society, enjoy the benefit of a flexible curriculum that allows them to spend a semester or entire year studying at domestic and international colleges and universities if they wish, and the opportunity to conduct significant research alongside faculty members, often being named co-authors on published papers.
Our Philosophy
The philosophy of the engineering program at Harvey Mudd College is based on the recognition that there is a professional component that is best addressed through practice gained by working on real problems. The engineering program philosophy is adopted to produce generalists, able to communicate across disciplines through the use and understanding of mathematics and systems-based analysis, who can design effective and innovative solutions to discipline specific problems. Our goal is to graduate students capable of solving real problems that span multiple engineering disciplines. This goal is realized through our three main curricular areas of focus (design, systems, and engineering science), as well as through our emphasis on professional practice. We teach a rigorous theoretical and broad background in these three areas of focus. Layered on this broad-based education is a professional practice component, which is realized through hands-on experiences in the classroom throughout the program, research opportunities and our junior/senior capstone industry-sponsored Clinic projects.
Our Goals
- Produce graduates who are exceptionally competent engineers whose work is notable for its breadth and its technical excellence.
- Provide a “hands-on” approach to engineering so that graduates develop an understanding of engineering judgment and practice, including ethics.
- Prepare and motivate students for lifetime of independent, reflective learning.
- Produce graduates who are aware of the impact of their work on the world.
- Offer a curriculum that is current, exciting and challenging for both students and faculty, but can be completed in four years by any motivated student who is admitted to Harvey Mudd College.
About Harvey Mudd College
We’re one of the premier engineering, science and mathematics colleges in the United States.
We’re also unique because we are a liberal arts college. Aren’t engineering, science and mathematics mutually exclusive of the liberal arts? Maybe at some places, but not at Harvey Mudd.
We educate engineers, scientists and mathematicians who become leaders in their fields and have a clear understanding of the impact their work has on society. That’s the big picture.
Mudd offers nine engineering, science and mathematics-based majors, all grounded in a solid core curriculum that includes a healthy dose of humanities and social science courses. Why? Because we know that you don’t have to sacrifice your interest in music or art (or anything else) to be good scientists. And because an understanding of history and politics will make us more effective engineers, chemists, lawyers, doctors and human beings. Add to that all of the hands-on experience we get through our high-level research projects and through our world-renowned Clinic Program, and we fearless Mudders go into the world ready for anything.
Not that Mudd’s all academics. We’re people, too. Longboards get us around campus, the Honor Code gives us freedom and responsibility, pranks keep us laughing, and parties make us famous. So not only do we know how to get things done, we know how to have a good time.
And for all of this, we have Harvey S. Mudd to thank. In the 1950s Mudd, an accomplished mining engineer, wanted to overcome many of the shortcomings of traditional, narrow technical training of his day. Mudd, and his successors who helped establish the college, delivered on his vision in a big way. Not only did they understand the world of science, they understood the people behind it. And today we have Harvey Mudd College, a place created by and for future, forward thinking scientists.