Related majors Plan your courses Get involved Study abroad Join a capstone Do research
Are you interested in transforming the way we manufacture, package, and deliver innovative products through process optimization and technology? Want to work with drones and robots? Intrigued by the idea of creating insect-sized robots that can sense and perform tasks without a human operator?
Related majors and academic degrees
academics applied learning profile research
Choose meaningful general education courses
General education requirements
At the UW, you are required to take general education courses. As an engineering student, this can consist of:
- 10 credits of Arts and Humanities (A&H)
- 10 credits of Social Sciences (SSc)
- 4 credits of A&H or SSc
- 3 credits of Diversity (DIV)
You can fulfill your general education requirements while building the context and creativity you'll need to engineer solutions to meaningful problems. Keep in mind that in your first year, you may want to start out in 100 or 200 level classes and build towards upper-division coursework throughout your time at the UW.
For example:
- HSTEU 251: Events that Shook Modern Europe: From the French Revolution to the EU (SSc)
- GEOG 435: Industrialization and Urbanization in China (SSc)
- SOC 466: Economic Sociology (SSc)
- GEOG 208: Geography of the World Economy: Regional Fortunes and the Rise of Global Markets
- INFO 402: Gender, Race and Information Technology (SSc, DIV)
- CHID 370/COM 302: The Cultural Impact of Information Technology (SSc or A&H)
Get involved!
Join student organizations working in your area of interest. You’ll make friends who have similar interests while building skills working on your passions.
- Advanced Robotics at UW
- Husky Robotics
- HuskyADAPT
- Institute of Industrial & Systems Engineers
- Keramos
- Materials Advantage
- Materials Research Society
- Society for the Advancement of Materials & Process Engineering
- Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry
- ChemE Brewing and Distilling Club
Study abroad opportunities
Deepen your understanding of the ways in which engineering can impact people around the world by participating in a study abroad program
- College of Engineering Nagoya University Summer Intensive Program (NUSIP)
- iSchool Vienna: Semantic AI - Using Metadata to Build Advanced Intelligence Systems
Many study abroad programs include engineering classes, participation in research or internships. See UW Engineering's Study Abroad page to learn more and start the planning process.
Capstone design projects in robotics and manufacturing
In your final year, you will participate in a capstone design experience that serves as a culmination of your engineering study. Past capstone projects in robotics and manufacturing have included:
- Materials science and engineering students worked with Boeing to explore and understand the role of composite matrix materials on manufacturing as cost-effective materials for use in the automotive and aerospace industries.
- Aeronautics & astronautics students worked with French aerospace company, Latecoere, to design, build and test a prototype of a new flight door lock system that uses an electroactive polymer to generate the lock action.
- Mechatronics students in the Mechanical Engineering department worked with Microsoft to develop an accurate and realistic robotic eye test-rig and associated software, allowing eye tracker testing without the use of a human.
- Chemical engineering students designed large-scale reactors and processes, as well as developed prototypes of innovative technologies, like the environmentally-friendly Decafino decaffeinating pouch.
See a full list of previous Industry capstone projects and a list of department-based capstone projects.
Join a research team
Every UW Engineering department offers undergraduate research opportunities. To get started:
- Ask questions and learn more at an Office of Undergraduate Research information session.
- Contact an adviser.
- Contact faculty to express interest in joining their labs and learn how to get involved.
Specifically, the Molecular Engineering Materials Center Summer REU Program is relevant for students interested in robotics and manufacturing.