General Engineering
What is General Engineering?
General Engineering is a unique curriculum that spans many disciplines of engineering. In response to the demand for well-rounded engineers, the General Engineering program was developed to educate students to become strong leaders and decision makers with practical engineering abilities.
What do students with a General Engineering degree do?
General engineers fill positions ranging from administrators to project designers, supervisors, and group leaders in research or production. They serve also as sales engineers, technical service representatives, directors of public relations units, and in other posts of leadership requiring both technical knowledge and the ability to deal with people effectively.
General Engineering at UIUC
General engineering students at UIUC take solid classes in basic sciences, engineering sciences, and engineering design. They focus primarily in mechanics and structures, control systems, and decision making from an interdisciplinary engineering perspective. However, a General Engineering student also specializes in a particular field of study.the secondary field that can be chosen from a preapproved list or customized around a student.s own particular interests and career goals. In the past several years, students have specialized in secondary fields including robotics, industrial design, pre-medicine, cinematography, and even Japanese.
Students in the general engineering program build leadership and learn business principles and practical engineering skills both inside and outside the classroom. Classes specifically designed to meet these objectives, as well as several other seminars and programs, are an integral part of a General Engineering education. One particular program, Teamwork for a Quality Education, or TQE, organizes groups of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, seniors, grad students, and faculty to accomplish the simple goal of obtaining the highest quality education for each member of the team. Peer tutoring, community service, and technical projects are all a part of the overall plan to achieve this goal.
The capstone senior design project exposes students to real engineering problem solving within industry. Groups of General Engineering students are linked with a particular company to solve a .real. engineering problem. For the duration of the project, the student-directed team collaborates with the company to cooperatively engineer solutions to a particular industry-related problem or situation. At the end of the project, the students have gained valuable practical experience while the companies have often saved millions of dollars from the students. ideas. The senior design projects completed in the past 26 years have won more national Lincoln Arc Welding Awards (including the prestigious Best of Program in 1995) than any other university in the country.
Career Opportunities
After a general engineering student graduates from UIUC, the opportunities for employment or graduate study are virtually endless. Many general engineers find jobs in consulting, computer-aided design/manufacturing (CAD/CAM), production, plant layout, quality control, and other industrial applications. Many of our graduates enter into management tracks after graduation. Some nontraditional careers for general engineers include business, patent law, medicine, and a multitude of various technically related fields.
Why General Engineering?
With a degree in general engineering from a department that is second to none, the leadership and practical engineering skills acquired within the General Engineering Department at UIUC will lead to any career path you choose.
Department Contact Information:
Department of General Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
117 Transportation Bldg., MC-238
104 S. Mathews Ave.
Urbana, IL 61801
Telephone: 217-333-2731
Fax: 217-244-5705
Email: gen-eng@uiuc.edu
Web page: http://www.ge.uiuc.edu
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