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When Do Students Start Research?
Many students are eager to start research projects as soon as possible. Our favorable student-to-faculty ratio allows each student to be accommodated according to individual needs and preparation through personal contact with a faculty mentor. In the typical college experience, the first year is usually one of getting accustomed to your new settings, making new friends, exploring extracurricular opportunities, and satisfying prerequisites. Motivated and well-prepared students often take engineering courses in their first year. Each engineering program sponsors social events where freshmen learn research activities, discover student engineering organizations, and meet engineering majors. This exposure is the gateway to research activity as soon as the summer after Freshman year. All students must complete a Senior project that may include research that prepares to student for graduate study in Engineering, either at Yale or other top-rated university. Examples of Student Research and Senior Projects can be viewed here.
Engineering primarily deals with applying mathematical and scientific principles to solve technical problems. Yale student engineering organizations tackle interesting problems under engineering faculty mentorship. Successful projects are those that are driven by student initiatives, enthusiasm and passion, rather than by faculty edict, and these projects are encouraged and supported by the Engineering Dean and alumni groups, such as the Yale Science and Engineering Association (YSEA). Some currently active organizations and their projects are described below.
Yale Engineering Design Team (YEDT) is an interdisciplinary group sponsored by Mechanical Engineering that works on a variety of projects, ranging from fun to grand challenges. Fun projects include an annual one-day design competition open to all Yale students, allowing history majors who like to tinker to show their stuff. Recent competitions include a bicycle design that travels across campus and then across the swimming pool. Another is the design of a cardboard vessel that keeps the design team afloat for the longest time. Long-term projects involve participation in faculty research and include the design of an autonomous helicopter and the hybrid car project. Each major brings their specialty to the multi-disciplinary team and expands their understanding of the design process.
Engineers without Borders is another multidisciplinary group sponsored by Environmental Engineering Program that works on projects related to more basic societal needs. After preparation during the academic year, their projects are usually accomplished during the summer by constructing a system. The group has built water delivery systems for villages in several developing countries.
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