Our Mission
The MIT School of Engineering’s mission is to educate the next generation of engineering leaders, to create new knowledge, and to serve society.
We strive to attract the most talented people in the world: to create, to innovate, and to see the unseen. Close knit and collaborative, the school is embedded in a hub for technology innovation, Kendall Square, and surrounded by the old world charm and cosmopolitan brio of Cambridge-Boston.
The largest of MIT’s five schools, the School of Engineering comprises about 70 percent of the Institute’s undergraduate majors and 45 percent of graduate students. Just over a third of MIT’s faculty are in the school, and they generate more than half of the sponsored research at the Institute.
Our Values
Our kind of engineer views praise as an invitation to tackle the next problem — and the harder, the better.
The things we have built — from genetic circuits to electrically driven shockwaves for water desalination — cross disciplines and departments, and in some cases, fuse them together. Advances in 3D printing, nanofabrication, robotics, and other technologies happen here every day.
The challenges we seek to solve, from cybersecurity to fusion energy to Alzheimer’s, require more than apps. Our kind of innovation can take decades.
Deep technology and science-based engineering are at the heart of what we do and who we are. Quantum computing, self-healing materials, programming bacteria to fix atmospheric nitrogen, and autonomous vehicles require rigor, passion, and a breakthrough, or two, or three.
We also provide a strong residential living and learning environment: More than 130,000 square “maker spaces”; dynamic research experiences for students; integrated study abroad and co-ops; and on-ramps and varied paths for innovation and entrepreneurship. A thriving arts and humanities scene, athletics (20 percent of undergrads play varsity), and, of course, hacks, round out student life.
Through K–12 programs, professional learning opportunities, digital tools, and personalized learning, we are also committed to opening up engineering to everyone — and transforming teaching through evidence and student input. In that sense, we are, in the words of MIT President Reif, “restlessly reinventing” ourselves to make a better world.
After all, we are the kind of place that doesn’t just talk about “moon shots,” but one that helped accomplish the real thing. The notion of making a better world is not sloganeering. It’s what we do. It’s what we have always done.