The School’s vision builds on two key premises. First, we recognize the changing role of engineering as a discipline within the university. So much of the excitement in research and teaching is at the interface between engineering and other disciplines, and technology is enabling other disciplines. Second, the faculty within the School have acknowledged a responsibility to respond to national and international needs in areas such as health, energy, environment, poverty, and security.
As an engineering school in service to society, our aim is to contribute to solving society’s challenges through the discovery of new knowledge and by educating students for leadership roles in a global society. We seek to attract students who have the talents and the desire to make a difference.
Computer Science and Engineering
The products of computer scientists and computer engineers are all around us. Computer scientists and computer engineers design our cell phones, the wireless networks that enable them to communicate with each other, and the software that makes them so flexible. They design the processor chips that power our laptops and the Internet routers that deliver packets of data across the globe in the blink of an eye. They design the DNA analysis programs that are used to diagnose genetic diseases, and medical devices from hearing aids to pace makers. They design the software and the complex of servers that drive web applications, from Google to YouTube to FaceBook. They write the software that controls GM assembly lines and the CAD software used to design Boeing’s 787. They design the Wii controller for Nintendo video games and IBM’s 100,000 processor Blue Gene supercomputer. Through these, and countless other technologies, computer scientists and computer engineers are changing the world.
Our Teaching Philosophy
For the United States to maintain a leadership position, our undergraduate programs must impart much more than technical mastery of individual concepts. Future leaders will require strong communication and collaboration skills, the ability to carry out innovative design, and an understanding and appreciation of other fields and cultures.
Educational research provides strong evidence that active and collaborative learning results in a deeper and more integrated understanding of concepts. Engaged students remember concepts longer and enjoy the learning process more. Collaborative learning builds important communication, teamwork, and leadership skills. Moreover, active learning provides an opportunity to teach the creative design process through discussion and critique of student work.
Our department is committed to fostering an innovative undergraduate experience where class time is often devoted to active learning, while some of the traditional lecture content is shifted outside of class in a way that empowers students to customize and control their learning experience. We are increasingly teaching foundational material through carefully planned problem-based learning sessions, and teaching design and implementation in collaborative inquiry-based studios including some courses with multi-disciplinary teams.
Our Faculty
Our faculty create and transmit fundamental knowledge, giving our students intellectual resources they need to create applications that benefit society.
Our faculty have made fundamental contributions in computational genomics, developing new algorithms and novel computational systems. They have developed algorithms and systems to gather and process distributed information from remote sensors, and to guarantee continued correct execution of systems under real-time constraints and in the face of malicious attacks. They have created new algorithms that allow us to more quickly obtain the best solutions to a wide variety of problems. They are applying these advances to a variety of problems, including understanding and modeling the mechanisms underlying complex human diseases, identifying which genes an individual inherited from which parent, and planning radiation treatment for cancer patients. They have created novel designs for network routers that enable order-of-magnitude improvements in network capacities, and fundamentally new ways to structure networks to allow new services to be developed and deployed more rapidly. They have developed new diagnostic imaging systems using ultrasound and advances in computer vision that can detect potential security threats. They have created brain-computer interfaces, allowing people to control robots directly with their thoughts. They have used machine learning to improve the performance of image retrieval systems and robot motion planning.
You can read about our faculty and their research at http://www.cse.seas.wustl.edu.
Freshman Engineering Seminar
This weekly seminar, organized and run by upper-class students, will introduce you to engineering and will help you identify the specific area of engineering that will meet your long-term interests and aspirations. In addition, the seminar will cover the key areas of leadership, collaboration, and communication—all of which will help you succeed throughout your undergraduate education.
Undergraduate Research
Computer science and engineering students have the opportunity to work with our faculty on research projects. The Washington University Undergraduate Research Program matches undergraduates with faculty and research groups. A wide range of projects is available.
Interdisciplinary Study Opportunities
The computer science and engineering program teaches students how to solve computing problems with engineering techniques, design new computing systems, and integrate computing technology with other disciplines. Our computer science and computer engineering programs provide extensive hands-on project experience and offer wide-ranging opportunities for interdisciplinary study, research, internships and international study.
International Study Opportunities
Experiencing an academic program in another country and culture can be both career-enhancing and life-transforming. Students have the opportunity to study abroad through the College of Arts & Sciences Overseas Program, but there are also many opportunities available only to engineering students—including summer, semester- or year-long study programs, and other specialized programs. For a complete list of opportunities, visit our Web site.
Career Opportunities
A degree in computer science and engineering can open many doors. Some of our graduates go to graduate school before beginning their professional careers, and others are hired by companies directly out of college.
A computer science or computer engineering major prepares you to work in a wide range of careers. A few examples of the many industry segments that employ our graduates are:
- computer and software industry (e.g., Google, Microsoft, Intel)
- movie and gaming industries
- telecommunications industry
- financial and e-commerce industries
- medicine and biotechnology
- scientific research and development
For additional information contact:
Washington University
Campus Box 1100
One Brookings Drive
St. Louis, MO 63130-4899
Phone: (314) 935-6166
Fax: (314) 935-7448
E-mail: engineering@seas.wustl.edu
Website: www.engineering.wustl.edu