Penn Engineering Departments

Bioengineering (BE)

Department Chair: Ravi Radhakrishnan, Professor

Penn Engineering is home to one of the oldest and most successful bioengineering departments in the United States, with undergraduate and graduate programs consistently ranking among the top 10 in the country. BE capitalizes on Penn’s great institutional strengths, including a compact urban campus of 12 separate schools, geographic proximity linking the engineering and medical schools within one city block, and a collaborative, integrated environment that allows students and faculty to transcend disciplines with curricula, research, technology, and patient care. More than 80 percent of our undergraduates perform independent research, and our graduate students publish their work in the most prestigious scientific journals. Our graduates form a vast global alumni network at companies, health centers, government agencies, and colleges and universities.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Master’s Program | Doctoral Program

Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE)

Department Chair: Chinedum O. Osuji, Eduardo D. Glandt Presidential Professor

Penn Engineering has the oldest continuously operating degree-granting program in chemical engineering. Since its inception in 1893, we have been expanding the frontiers of knowledge in the field. CBE is renowned for the caliber of both our undergraduate and graduate educational programs, and we are absolutely committed to preparing our students for leadership roles in the biological, chemical, pharmaceutical, and electronics industries. Our department is widely recognized for the excellence of our faculty’s research programs, which are in areas including soft materials, molecular and cellular biophysics, materials simulation and advanced methods of energy conversion, as well as more traditional areas of chemical engineering, including transport phenomena and process design.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program

Computer and Information Science (CIS)

Department Chair: Zachary G. Ives, Adani President’s Distinguished Professor

Penn Engineering is the birthplace of the modern computer. It was here that ENIAC, the world’s first electronic, large-scale, general-purpose digital computer, was developed in 1946. For over 70 years, the field of computer science at Penn has been marked by exciting innovations. While the field has always had strong connections with many other disciplines such as mathematics, electrical engineering, biology, economics, linguistics and philosophy among others, it appears that every other academic discipline is starting to build a relationship to computer science. Our faculty have research activities across many areas of computer science, including intelligent systems, information systems, hardware and software systems, networks and theory.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Graduate Program

Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE)

Department Chair: Mark G. Allen, Alfred Fitler Moore Professor

Electrical and Systems Engineering is focused on synthesis of devices and design theory underlying the interface between the material world and the information and work humans seek to exchange with it and each other. Originating from a merger of the formerly distinct Electrical Engineering and Systems Engineering Departments, ESE represents our school’s response to the rapidly-changing intellectual and career landscape of engineering at the vital junction of “atoms and bits.” Our research seeks to carry forward strategic instances of the traditional electrical engineering focus on specific, new device technologies. ESE’s approach to engineering education de-emphasizes the command of specific facts and detailed mastery of today’s tools, aiming rather to graduate broadly educated, curious problem solvers who have a strong grasp of disciplinary foundations and a high level of comfort in self-directed acquisition of new techniques.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Master’s Program | Doctoral Program

Materials Science and Engineering (MSE)

Department Chair: Shu Yang, Joseph Bordogna Professor

Materials Science and Engineering is recognized for the quality of its educational program and the research activities of world-renowned faculty. While the field of materials science evolved from materials formed from metals, ceramics, polymers and their various composites, in recent years there has been increasing focus on creating novel nanostructured materials, for instance by taking inspiration from nature. The new fields of nanotechnology and biomaterials are providing materials scientists with an entirely new palette of molecular, organic, biological and inorganic building blocks to design and assemble nanoengineered materials with unique functionalities. The research and academic programs in MSE at Penn Engineering reflect these exciting new developments.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Master’s Program |Doctoral Program

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics (MEAM)

Department Chair: Kevin Turner, Professor

Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics at Penn Engineering focuses on high-caliber undergraduate and graduate programs, which combine solid education in the fundamentals with hands-on research into novel problems and applications. A strong emphasis on analysis, modeling, practice, and teamwork prepare students to be leaders in industry, government, and academia. Our research efforts take advantage of Penn’s compact campus and the lack of barriers between departments, with collaborations stretching across traditional disciplines and using not only the resources of Penn Engineering, but also the University as a whole. Projects span the entire spectrum of mechanical engineering and applied mechanics, utilizing analytical, experimental and numerical techniques.

Homepage | Undergraduate Program | Master’s Program | Doctoral Program