Undergraduate degrees and programs

As an aerospace engineering major, you’ll learn how to build the technologies that make flight possible—from aircraft and spacecraft systems to propulsion and flight simulation. You’ll gain hands-on experience and work alongside faculty who are shaping the future of flight and space. With opportunities to engage in cutting-edge research, you’ll graduate ready to lead and innovate—prepared to launch a career that can take you from Madison to the skies and beyond.

As a biomedical engineer, you can apply engineering tools to solve problems in biology and medicine. This unique engineering discipline allows you to make a difference in society’s health as a professionally trained engineer, but with a specialized focus on the medical and biological applications of classical engineering principles.

As a chemical engineer, you can take advantage of advances in chemistry and biology to create new products, design sustainable chemical processes, develop energy resources, and protect the environment. As a chemical engineering major, you’ll dive into chemistry, biology, mathematics and physics and use your broad scientific training to work on a diverse set of problems involving chemical, physical and biological phenomena.

As a civil engineer, you can design sustainable facilities that protect the health and welfare of communities and our environment, while also ensuring society’s financial health. Many of our civil engineering graduates serve society through leadership roles in projects to conceive, design and construct public works.

Computer Engineering is central to many applications from artificial intelligence to smart appliances to national security. As a computer engineering major, you will learn to design, develop, test and manufacture computer systems using the latest semiconductor chip technologies. You will also learn to analyze and research systems that process, store and communicate digital information between devices and across the world. Computer engineering majors explore cutting-edge systems, including wearable technologies, mobile devices, cloud servers, and embedded systems.

Electrical Engineering is central to many applications, including power generation, communication, healthcare, and instrumentation. As an electrical engineering major, you will learn to design, develop, analyze, research and create systems that support these diverse fields. You will study both the physical devices and the functional components that make up these systems, ranging from transistors, antennas, lasers and electric machines to signal processing, machine learning and artificial intelligence methods, communication and networking protocols, and control and estimation systems.

As an engineering mechanics major, you will design, measure and analyze complex structures of everything from networks of human cells and novel nanoscale materials to roller coasters and spacecraft. Your education will prepare you for careers in a wide variety of fields, including health, clean energy, space exploration and many more, and you’ll be part of a community that supports your success during your degree and as you launch your career!

Want to get involved in undergraduate research? The engineering physics major is specifically designed to launch your research career with a math and physics-centered curriculum that bridges the gap between theoretical science and practical engineering. You’ll work in the lab alongside professors at the forefront of their fields, translating emerging science into novel technologies.

As an environmental engineer, you’ll directly influence areas that include lakes and rivers, clean drinking water, environmental pollution, alternative energy, climate change and more. And you’ll learn how to design, construct and operate the sustainable systems and smart infrastructure that will help make these things a reality.

As a geological engineering major, you’ll find the best way to use the earth’s resources to solve technical problems while protecting the environment. As a GLE student, you’ll also learn how to solve a variety of practical problems associated with rock and soils using principles of sustainable engineering.

As an industrial engineering major, you’ll work at the intersection of engineering, people, and business. As with other engineering disciplines, you’ll apply your science and mathematics skills to solving difficult problems. Our course curriculum is set to provide a diverse background to students, providing you with the opportunity to pursue whatever your area of interest might be.

As a materials engineer, you’ll be on the cutting edge of innovations that make every other aspect of our lives possible. As a materials science and engineering major, you’ll learn how to process materials for manufactured products; develop and design nontraditional as well as traditional materials for an increasingly broad range of industries; and study and develop high-performance materials for use in the future.

As a mechanical engineering major, you’ll learn about manufacturing processes, energy generation and use, and how to design mechanical equipment and systems. But you’ll also have the opportunity to specialize in areas as wide-ranging as robotics, biomedical engineering, product design, computational mechanics, and many other areas. And the great thing about your education is that you’ll be able to apply it in virtually any field.

Nuclear engineers use nuclear science and technology to tackle some of society’s biggest challenges: expanding clean energy, diagnosing and curing diseases, traveling to distant plants, and reducing the risk of nuclear weapons. Our hands-on curriculum will equip you to keep up with rapidly changing technology, and our close-knit learning community will support your success during your academic career and beyond.