New Students Hear About Engineering at Yale

With their newly acquired SEAS coffee mugs and reading materials, more than 100 students gathered at Davies Auditorium to hear SEAS Interim Dean Mitchell Smooke give the rundown of what engineering at Yale is all about.

After giving a quick history of Yale Engineering (it awarded the university’s first Ph.D., for instance), Smooke noted that today’s students are increasingly interested in engineering. Although Yale is known for its studies in the humanities, computer science is now among the most popular fields of study at Yale.

“Things have changed,” he said, noting that computer science has the fourth largest number of majors. “It’s clear that computer science is growing tremendously.”

Smooke also noted that mechanical engineering now has several times more students than when he first arrived at Yale.

Joe Zinter, assistant director of the Center for Engineering Innovation & Design (CEID), talked about what the facility has to offer new students.

“It’s a place where students just like you are quite literally building the future,” he said. Besides its impressive array of resources open to the Yale community, he also highlighted the CEID’s many training works - everything from how to build a circuit to the science of making chocolate.

Additionally, students representatives from Tau Beta Pi and the Yale Undergraduate Aerospace Association spoke about their groups and how new students can get involved. 

Following the event, the Yale student branch of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (Y-IEEE) organized and hosted “SEAS Bluebooking over Lunch” in the CEID where first-year students were able to meet and connect with upper-level engineering students over a SEAS-sponsored, catered lunch.