Olin College of Engineering
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Saving the world, one semester at a time DISCOVER OLIN! There’s never been a better time to be an engineer. Never has the world faced such Grand Challenges* and engineers will be front and center in the effort to turn these problems into opportunities. But not just any engineers. The challenges we’re facing—from protecting the environment to ensuring clean air and water to finding new, sustainable energy sources—call for a new kind of engineer, one able to work across borders, time zones and disciplines. We need innovators with the ingenuity to devise new solutions that will make the world a better place. Olin has pioneered a new kind of engineering program designed to educate and inspire extraordinary engineering innovators for this new era. We call this kind of innovator the Olin Engineer. What is the Olin Engineer? He or she is inventive, a bigpicture thinker who also sweats the details—multidimensional, entrepreneurial, can-do, fearless and aware of the social aspects of invention. In short, the Olin Engineer is an innovator able to work at the boundaries of disciplines, cultures and technologies, where things get interesting. How do we educate this new engineer? We start with the right raw materials: talented students who crave big challenges and who want to change the world. Add enterprising, inspiring faculty dedicated to undergraduate teaching and shaking up engineering education, and place it all in a campus engineered for creative interaction.
Next, create a curriculum and culture that has students learn engineering by tackling actual engineering problems. At Olin, you dive right in from day one in a program that’s demanding, rigorous, mindstretching—and fun. Our curriculum incorporates engineering, entrepreneurship and liberal arts, drawing insights from each. We also teach essential practical skills, like how to be a communicator and how to work in teams—skills that will help you no matter what field you enter. At Olin, we like to say you will learn to think like an engineer, and maybe even be one.
We invite your exploration of the Olin experience.
THE NAE GRAND CHALLENGES OF ENGINEERING > The Grand Challenges of Engineering span four broad realms of human concern— Sustainability, Health, Security and the Joy of Living—and include such problems as providing clean water, ensuring sustainable energy, and improving global health, among others (there are 14 in all).
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Aiswarya Kolisetty ’13 AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL CHENNAI, CHENNAI, INDIA CURRENT ADE PROJECT WORKING IN CALCUTTA ON WATER CHLORINATION PASSIONS BRIDGING PSYCHOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY, SOCIETY OF WOMEN ENGINEERS, VOLLEYBALL AND PHOTOGRAPHY
AFFORDABLE DESIGN & ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ADE) > If you have dreams of traveling and changing the world, then Affordable Design & Entrepreneurship is the class for you. In ADE students work in teams with faculty advisors and use their Olin design and entrepreneurial skills to help alleviate poverty in low-income communities around the world. Every semester, the new students who take the class pick up where the last team left off, creating their own team dynamic and goal—from promoting a bamboo bicycle business in Alabama to improving rickshaw transportation in India to creating a better guava grater in Ghana.
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I love Olin because I get to jump into the deep end of engineering; I get to define what engineering is. Usually, it’s about thinking ‘outside the box’; at Olin, I get to create that box and everything around it. We get the chance to explore and design the way we learn. It’s the small population, openness to ideas and flat management structure that allow this to happen.”
TOP RANKINGS U .S. News & World Report #4 Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs, nondoctoral C hronicle of Higher Education Top Producer of
Fulbright Scholars
N ational Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Scored above the 90th percentile mark in nine out of 10 metrics measuring the quality of the educational experience www.olin.edu/about/rankings-awards
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Mark Somerville, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR FACULTY AFFAIRS AND DEVELOPMENT AND PROFESSOR OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AND PHYSICS
Olin is really a creative and collaborative community where people feel that they are engaged in a common endeavor—we recognize our differences, but we also work together and respect each other.” 04:05
a decade of innovation olin.edu/view
A new kind of
ARTISAN’S ASYLUM / GUI CAVALCANTI ’09 / SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS
> Artisan’s Asylum is a non-profit 40,000 square foot maker-space and workshop that provides public access to high-end manufacturing equipment, classes and private rental studios for artists, entrepreneurs, engineers and hobbyists. It was started in May 2010 by Gui Cavalcanti ’09 and his partner, Jenn Martinez. In starting the Asylum, Cavalcanti “was looking for a culture similar to Olin and my high school robotics team, where the emphasis was on collaboration and peer learning to make cool stuff possible.” > Many members actually use these spaces as offices for businesses ranging from a bicycle shop that makes wildly adaptive frames to microbusinesses with global footprints. > http://artisansasylum.com/
Sylvie Boiteau Stacy ’07
er ine ng be er Su p
Attending Olin has greatly One of our pioneer Olin alumnae, Sylvie Stacy has influenced what I’m doing now and chosen a rather unorthodox what I plan to do in the future. When path in achieving her goal of becoming a I was at Olin I had to work hard to be childhood doctor. For starters, she went sure I was meeting all of my biology to Olin, where she majored in biomedical engineering. requirements, which included Since then she has gone on to study at the University cross-registration at Wellesley and of Massachusetts and has Brandeis. During my senior year, I participated completed most of her clinical internship year. Sylvie plans on the Boston Scientific SCOPE medical design to enter a preventive medicine project team. Seeing how much work goes into residency, focusing on population-based health care. the design and development of medical tools, I realized that there must be a need for a person to act as the ‘middleman’ between those who use the product and those who develop it. Olin opened my eyes to a role that was tangentially involved in both medicine and engineering.”
ies nit ces ma hu cien ts, l s Ar ocia &s
ing
MASSACHUSETTS ACADEMY OF MATH AND SCIENCE, UPTON, MASSACHUSETTS; OLIN’S FIRST M.D.
DESIGN CREATIVITY INNOVATION
Entrepreneurship
THE “OLIN TRIANGLE” > The curriculum is based on
the “Olin Triangle,” a combination of rigorous science and engineering fundamentals, entrepreneurship and the liberal arts. There is a deep commitment at all levels to active learning and interdisciplinary courses built around hands-on projects. At Olin, learning and doing go together from the start.
engineering college OLIN=INNOVATION For many years engineering educators kept the same content and teaching methods even as the challenges and opportunities for engineers changed. At Olin, we’re proud to say, we’ve led the way in changing that. We built Olin from the ground up to give talented students a more inspiring and relevant engineering education. In the process, we tossed out many time-honored traditions in our laserlike focus on what the engineer of the 21st century must know and be. And what is that? The problems our planet faces are not only large in scale, they are daunting in their complexity. They require “systems thinkers”––
OLIN IS DIFFERENT Some of the ways Olin is different:
engineers whose familiarity with different disciplines enables them to imagine the interconnections necessary to tackle a problem like pollution control or clean energy production. Of course, a solid technical grounding is essential. But because the challenges we face are global, they also require people able to work in teams that stretch across borders and cultures. These people must understand the social implications of technological change and must possess the communication skills to persuade others of the appropriateness of their ideas. Moreover, they must have the business and entrepreneurial savvy to bring their solutions to the marketplace. The new engineer––the Olin Engineer––is required to embody an exciting combination of skills. Olin has forged an engineering program that deliberately brings about a collision of disciplines and ideas. We’ve redefined engineering education to encompass human needs and business realities, and this invigorating mix animates our curriculum and our culture. These deliberately engineered collisions are what lead to innovation. And innovation, in the last analysis, is what will revitalize our economy, improve people’s lives and save our world. If you have to define Olin in one word, it’s “innovation.” more at
olin.edu/view
lin has no academic departments, for O a highly integrative learning experience. very student receives a 50% tuition E merit scholarship for eight semesters. “ Do-learn” is Olin’s mantra. From the start, learning is hands-on. lin’s student body is nearly genderO balanced—very rare in engineering. very student must start and run a E business or enterprise to graduate. ll students must complete a year-long A senior design project sponsored by industry or embedded in a developing community.
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Passionate, altruistic, enterprising, diagonal 06:07
STUDENT BODY PROFILE Enrollment 343 students Gender distribution 50% women/50% men Origins 38 states, 13 countries, 23 foreign nationals Percent living on campus 99%
SEEING YOURSELF AT OLIN Olin is not for everyone. Some people see themselves at prestigious traditional institutions, and they are fine with that. We are too. But if you want to experience an exciting new kind of engineering education, one geared to 21st-century skills and perspectives, then you should consider Olin. Traditionally, engineering education has focused almost exclusively on technical learning. This focus produces engineers who are very good at designing things to a set of technical specifications, but not so good at imagining entirely new solutions. Olin adds two more areas of focus: human needs, which drive the technical specifications, and the marketplace, the ultimate destination of new technologies. Olin has developed a much broader definition of engineering, and our curriculum is framed around this insight. We’re looking for students who are not only math and science whizzes, but are also good at many things usually attributed to the humanities: understanding people, appreciating the arts, valuing creativity, communicating well. At the same time, we prize students who are entrepreneurially minded and interested in seeing their inventions make it to the marketplace. So how do you know if you’d fit in at Olin? If you excel at dance and are equally adept at computer science, Olin might be right for you. If you’ve just started your third business and you have a passion to alleviate poverty in the developing world, Olin is a place you should look at. If you’re a poet who has invented a new solar battery, you’ll find plenty of kindred spirits here. We’re a creative, collaborative community of team players who want to work hard and have some serious fun. more at
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CLASS OF 2017 PROFILE 8 6 students: 47 women, 39 men 25 states represented 4 foreign countries A verage GPA: 3.82/4.0 (unweighted) C lass rank: 9 valedictorians, 3 salutatorians
M edian SAT (CR/M/W): 730/770/710 M edian ACT (composite): 34 20% recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.
Shane Skikne ’15 GANN ACADEMY, MIDDLETON, MASSACHUSETTS PASSIONS ADVENTURE CLUB, JEWISH ORGANIZATION, COMMUNITY SERVICE, SCUBA CLUB, ULTIMATE FRISBEE, SKIING, SAILING AND TRAVELING
In the classroom, I am passionate about system integration—making the code, the electronics and the physical pieces work together. I have always loved the challenge of making these three different pieces of the puzzle fit together and function as expected. Outside the classroom, I am a big fan of trying a little bit of everything and leaving my comfort zone. In the past year alone, I have traveled to four new countries, sky-dived, gotten my advanced open-water scuba certification and learned to make chocolate.”
06:07 OLIN’S SAILBOT TEAM > Ever wonder what the next generation of boat navigation might look like? Meet Olin’s Sailbot team, founded in 2011 by James Regulinski ’12, Jaime McCandless ’12, Jason Curtis ’12, Andrew Fabian ’12 and Abe Feldman ‘12. The team entered the Robotic Sailing Competition in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June 2012. Olin College and its Sailbot, Blackbody Radiation, claimed second place out of nine teams from the U.S. and Canada. > I participate in Sailbot because it’s fun, it’s exciting, and I’m pushing the boundaries of what I know how to do,” said team member Eric Schneider ’15. “The team did great at the Vancouver competition, taking second place in its rookie year!” > Team representatives Jaime McCandless and Jason Curtis, along with faculty members Drew Bennett and Dave Barrett, were selected to give a keynote presentation about Sailbot at National Instruments Week 2012, before 4,500 engineers.
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People-inspired engineering Rachel Boy ’15 BLOOMSBURG AREA HIGH SCHOOL, BLOOMSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA
What am I passionate about? On a broad scale, understanding the world—and bringing that understanding to others in a way that improves their lives. How does that manifest? I’m passionate about improving STEM education. As such, I’m heavily involved in Engineering Discovery, a group that does K-12 engineering education outreach and volunteering in the Needham-Wellesley area. I also do swing and blues dancing with the Olin Dance Project, and I have a long-running Passionate Pursuit in various types of chocolate-making!”
Caitrin Lynch, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND AUTHOR COURSES TAUGHT THE HUMAN CONNECTION: TOOLS AND CONCEPTS FROM ANTHROPOLOGY FOR UNDERSTANDING TODAY’S WORLD; ENGINEERING FOR HUMANITY AND AHS CAPSTONE
My colleague Lynn Andrea Stein and I created Engineering for Humanity to help students identify problems facing local seniorcitizen partners, then design and build solutions geared to the specific senior-citizen partner. We want our engineering students to design with the needs, priorities and values of people in mind, not to design something that the engineer thinks is a good idea Breauna Campbell ’14 but no real person would actually want. The students FAITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL, LAFAYETTE, INDIANA designed a double-handled cane for a Needham man PASSIONS DANCE (BALLET, SALSA, SWING, TANGO) who had trouble getting out of his car, created a device to enable a Wellesley woman to cook at her stove while This class taught me how to in her wheelchair, and modified a couch to identify people’s needs and how to help another Wellesley woman easily rise fulfill them. I now understand how from a seated position. The class is aimed important it is to think about your at Olin, Babson and Wellesley students, and user group no matter what kind of it has been great to see the collaboration engineer you are. In working with and creativity that comes from teaming up the older population to meet some such an interdisciplinary group.” of their needs, we learned how to really observe and listen.”
PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST In our world of exponentially advancing technology, it’s easy to become dazzled by the latest technological wizardry and lose sight of why engineering has always been important: to serve people. At Olin, we’re clear that the true goal of engineering is to make people’s lives better and to progress as a society and a world community so that all can realize their full potential. That’s why we call our brand of engineering “people inspired.” It doesn’t begin with technology, as so many engineering endeavors do these days, but with human needs. This focus is exemplified in courses such as User-Oriented Collaborative Design, in which students intensively study the needs of selected “user groups” (such as emergency room nurses or bicycle couriers) before they even begin to think about designing products for them. The point is to learn design through a collaborative process where the first question is “What would actually make this person’s life better?” Another iconic Olin course is Engineering for Humanity (again, the name says a lot). In this course, students from Wellesley, Babson and Olin combine their talents to create devices that will help improve the lives of local elderly (see profile above).
OLIN CARES 78% of the class did community service during high school; one student co-founded a nonprofit called Education Matters that collects money and supplies for needy schools; another student ran the first Treats for the Troops program in their hometown while a third student did community service projects in the Galapagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest and the Andes.
Olin’s Class of 2017 cares
On a global scale, Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship challenges students to use design and entrepreneurial principles to alleviate poverty and address social challenges in low-income communities around the globe. For example, students might create and test the technology for a microenergy utility, such as a concentrated solar battery charging station, and the business model that makes it viable. The goal of such courses isn’t just to convey a specific body of knowledge—technology is changing every day, after all—but to teach values and attitudes about engineering and its relation to the wider world. By our definition, engineering is about helping people and having a lasting impact on that world.
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10:11 TECHNICAL MACHINE > a startup which offers software developers a tool to make hardware, reached a major fundraising goal—$1million in seed capital less than three months after going public on the crowdfunding site Dragon. This seed round follows a record breaking crowdsourcing effort that secured the team its first $196,682. The company, founded by JIA HUANG ’14, JON MCKAY ’13 and TIM RYAN ’14 plans to open an office in Cambridge, Mass., in January, and then relocate to the San Francisco area next summer. > http://tessel.io
SURPRISE, SURPRISE: YOU LEARN ENGINEERING BEST BY TACKLING ACTUAL ENGINEERING PROBLEMS Olin’s educational program represents a radical broadening and rethinking of the engineering curriculum. Olin balances rigorous science and engineering fundamentals with entrepreneurship and arts, humanities and social sciences. At its core, the Olin program represents a commitment to teaching engineering by tackling complex, real-world engineering problems just like the ones students will face as graduates. • As part of Olin’s project-based curriculum, students build and innovate from day one in Design Nature through an exciting process of discovery and co-creation. They work on diverse teams and tackle actual engineering challenges in a manner very similar to the global teams assembled by today’s leading companies. • Design is a focal point of the curriculum, not something stuck on as an afterthought. • Math and science theory is tightly interwoven with practical application in a “do-learn” process that creates more long-lasting and authentic learning. Students experience the joy of creation from day one.
• Teaching and learning are often done at the intersection of disciplines, simulating the messiness of the real world. • Every student is involved in designing and launching an entrepreneurial enterprise at some point during the four years of study. • A high degree of choice within the curriculum and among courses means that individual passions and interests fuel the learning, fostering strong student engagement. Olin graduates consummate problem solvers and lifelong learners who have the ability and confidence to define problems, acquire new knowledge as necessary and devise creative solutions—the very definition of the 21st-century engineer.
MAJORS
CONCENTRATIONS
CE: Electrical and E Computer Engineering ME: Mechanical Engineering E: Engineering (with concentration)
Bioengineering Computing Design Materials Science Robotics Systems
Olin’s do-learn model
Lawrence Neeley, Ph.D. ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF DESIGN AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP COURSES TAUGHT REAL PRODUCTS, REAL MARKETS; DESIGN NATURE; USERORIENTED COLLABORATIVE DESIGN; SCOPE; ENTREPRENEURSHIP FOUNDATION
My motivation for teaching [Real Products, Real Markets] is that as engineers, we’re really good at getting to the prototype. We can make something that works. But maybe it doesn’t work all the time, or we haven’t necessarily thought about cost and what it takes to get it out into the world. So I wanted to look at what it means to go from prototype all the way to product: to start with human needs and Shivam Desai ’14 inspiration and to end with CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF MATH AND SCIENCE, LOMITA, CALIFORNIA people as the recipients PASSIONS ROBOTICS AND REPRESENTING MY CLASSMATES IN STUDENT GOVERNMENT of the solutions we’ve I research with Aaron Hoover in the Olin Robotics and imagined and realized. Bioinspiration Lab (orb.olin.edu). Currently, Asa Eckert-Erdheim From people. To people. ’14 and I are optimizing an optical force sensor that we built in order to create In this, I think design a better dynamic model of the lab’s robot, dynaRoACH - Dynamic Robotic and entrepreneurship are Autonomous Crawling Hexapod. It’s really exciting to think that the work that fundamentally intertwined. Asa and I have done at the ORB Lab will set the foundation for further work Indeed, in some ways they that is accomplished researchwise for years to come.” olin.edu/view are the same thing.” DESIGN NATURE > Build a swimming toy that amazes your 10-year old cousin! In Design Nature, first-year students develop bioinspired ideas into working prototypes. Working in a studio environment, teams develop a shared practice and understanding of engineering design. You will gain experience in visualization, experimentation, estimation, fabrication and presentation as they relate to design. The class concludes with a day where fourthgraders from a local elementary school come to campus to judge each team’s final project. > MICHAEL HEYNES ’13, HALE SCHOOL, PERTH, AUSTRALIA One of my favorite projects was when I collaboratively designed and built an RC Manta Ray for Design Nature class. I designed the frame and wing structures of the manta ray using Solidworks and fabricated part of the device alongside my teammates.” > http://michaelheyns.com/
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more at
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http://scope.olin.edu/
SCOPE-ing out the challenge MECHANICAL PROTOTYPING MADE FUN WITH ROBOTIC HAND COMPETITION > Mechanical engineer and professor Aaron Hoover wanted to make his Mechanical Prototyping class more fun and challenging, so he started the end-of-semester student competition involving an “underactuated hand,” a type of robotic hand. I wanted a challenge that had relevance in the real world but was accessible,” says Hoover. “The success of a given design depends on students’ ability to master the skills taught in the class, from visualization, mechanical design and iterative prototyping to debugging and multimaterial fabrication.”
Jessica Townsend, Ph.D. ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING COURSES TAUGHT MODELING AND SIMULATION OF THE PHYSICAL WORLD AND THERMODYNAMICS
Advisor to the Boston Scientific SCOPE Team, Townsend can talk with you about the weather in Gaelic (Irish).
As an Olin professor, I am most inspired by my students. The passion they bring to the classroom, to the lab and to impromptu discussions in the dining hall really adds to the dynamic, fun and occasionally quirky culture at Olin. I chose Olin because I have a passion for teaching engineering. The best hours of my day are those spent in class with my students or in the lab with my research assistants or just talking with a student who’s come up with the next big world-saving idea. This is Olin in a nutshell, and this is why I am here.” SUMMER EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES > Remarkably, 67 percent of Olin students completed an internship or research assignment last summer. Following is a representative sampling of summer activities: > INTERNSHIPS Apple, Boston Scientific, GE, Google, Intuit, Microsoft, MITRE, Raytheon BBN, SoftArtisans, Twitter. > L ABS Boston University, Caltech, Cornell, Harvard University, IMEC – Belgium, Johns Hopkins University, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Massachusetts. > NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES Brown, Chicago, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, UVa. > AND AT OLIN COLLEGE Research assistantships with Olin faculty range from robotics to genetics to materials science.
OLIN’S ENGINEERING CAPSTONE PROGRAM OFFERS UNPARALLELED LEARNING OPPORTUNITY FACEBOOK AND SCOPE > The 2012–13 Facebook SCOPE team imagined
and prototyped hardware devices that let developers build experiences that integrate deeply and meaningfully with Facebook, allowing people to opt in to sharing live events on Facebook as they happen. MARGARET-ANN SEGER ’13, JESUIT HIGH SCHOOL, HILLSBORO, OREGON > The team’s biggest deployment so far has been during Expo, Olin’s end-of-semester project fair and conference. The team added an interactive component to the project fair, called Expo Live. Project pages and information about the projects’ presenters were put online at OlinExpo.com. During the conference, attendees could opt in to keeping track of what projects they visited with Live Badges, hardwareenabled badges that also let the team display in real time which projects were visited by whom and, after Expo finished, shared on each attendee’s Facebook page which projects they visited, enabling them to easily follow up with the students they had met during the presentation.” more at
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Olin’s hands-on curriculum culminates in SCOPE, a substantial, year-long project under the realistic constraints of a corporation or other sponsor. As part of SCOPE, the sponsor supplies an authentic, challenging engineering problem. Olin provides a student engineering team, a dedicated project space, a faculty adviser and access to the Olin technology base. Projects involve multiple engineering disciplines, including elements of engineering science, engineering design and entrepreneurship. Alternatively, students have the opportunity to complete a year-long Affordable Design and Entrepreneurship capstone where they work in teams with faculty advisors developing technologies and ventures to help alleviate poverty in low income communities.
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A SAMPLING OF PAST SCOPE SPONSORS: • Boeing • Hewlett-Packard • John Deere • Boston Scientific • Facebook • Raytheon • Motorola A SAMPLING OF PROJECTS: • High-tech fuel cells • Robot vehicles • Less-invasive medical devices • Jet propulsion system optimization • Cutting-edge cellphone applications
Victoria Hsiao ’10 NORTHWOOD HIGH SCHOOL, IRVINE, CALIFORNIA
Thanks to the Fulbright, I was able to collaborate with talented researchers from halfway across the world, to reconnect with my cultural heritage and to share my experiences abroad with everyone in the community,” says Victoria. After receiving a Fulbright scholarship, Victoria went to Taiwan in June 2010 to study at the National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei, where she worked on a tissue engineering research project in the biomedical engineering department. She researched ways of mechanically stimulating cells to grow into ligaments, such as those that are commonly torn in the knee during exercise. “I am tremendously grateful for this opportunity,” says Victoria, who chronicled her adventure via her Ten in Taipei blog:
Proof points
http://tenintaipei.blogspot.com/. 14:15
Sarah Boman ’07
CENTRAL VIRGINIA GOVERNOR’S SCHOOL FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, FOREST, VIRGINIA
Sarah is in her final year of graduate school, working on her Master of Architecture from the University of Colorado, Denver. Through architecture, Sarah is able to combine her work experience with buildings and her love of design. Sarah has taken Olin’s “hands on” approach to her new educational life, participating in a nonprofit, DesignBuildBLUFF, to build a house for a Navajo family. It’s an amazing opportunity to learn architecture through hands-on experience and give a home to a fantastic family,” says Sarah.
OLIN ALUMNI, CLASSES OF 2006-2013 ulbright scholars: 9 F SF Graduate Research awards: 41; honorable N
mentions: 19 Gates Cambridge Scholarship: 1 Goldwater Scholars: 2; honorable mentions: 2 Samsung Scholar: 1 Top employers: athenahealth, Bluefin Robotics, Boeing, Google, Microsoft, Pocket Gems, Raytheon, Rockwell Automation, Twitter, United States Navy Top graduate schools: Babson College; Carnegie Mellon University; Cornell University; Harvard University; MIT; Stanford University; University of California, Berkeley; University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; University of Washington; Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Postgraduate interests Engineering Business Law Medicine Nonprofit Public policy Research Teaching National security You name it!
HOW DO WE KNOW THE OLIN EDUCATION WORKS? Olin has students learn engineering by taking on real-world problems and challenges and broadening their perspectives. But how do we know this revolutionary approach is having an effect out there in the world, where it really matters? Or, put another way, how do we know the Olin Engineer is really any better at tackling 21st-century challenges? Olin is young, so we are still gathering proof points for our revolutionary approach. Nonetheless, we are attracting the world’s most talented and high-performing students. And the feedback we’re getting from employers and the engineering community at large indicates we’re on the right path. Olin graduates have great outcomes in employment and graduate school. Leading-edge companies are eager to hire Olin graduates for their innovative and outside-the-box thinking (among Olin’s top recruiters are Microsoft, Google, Boeing and Twitter). Employers typically say Olin graduates arrive at their companies more at
with the equivalent of three to five years of experience— no surprise given Olin’s real-world curriculum. Olin grads are well-represented in top graduate schools as well. Many who pursue science, technology, engineering or math in graduate school go to a Top 10 program, as defined by U.S. News & World Report. That means schools like Harvard, Stanford and Berkeley. Many students choose business or medicine as their post-Olin career path. Olin is becoming recognized as a leader in engineering education reform, and we’ve partnered with a diverse set of institutions to further that goal. In fact, over the last few years, more than 200 colleges and universities from around the U.S. and the world have visited us to learn more about our unique educational model, and Olin-inspired curricula are in use at nine other institutions.
olin.edu/view
577 ALUMNI IN CLASSES OF 2006–2013* 95% Employed or in graduate school 76% Employed 9% Graduate school-STEM 1% Graduate school–other fields 8% Entrepreneurs * at 6-months post-graduation
5 % Other (traveling, writing, seeking employment)
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The culture is the
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SAMPLE LIST OF CLUBS Olin Fire Arts Club SERV Mini Baja Sailbot Human Powered Vehicles PowerChords (a cappella) Franklin W. Olin Players (FWOP) eDiscovery Cheese Club Midnight Riders (unicyclists) Olin Dance Project Open Habitat for Humanity SWE IEEE The Foundry Research of Electric Vehicles at Olin Meat Club
OLIN’S INVIGORATING COMMUNITY IGNITES INNOVATION One of the most difficult things to convey about an institution is its culture. It’s a lot easier to talk about the details of the curriculum, the destinations of our graduates and other quantifiable aspects. But that would be missing one of the most important features of Olin: the people and their backgrounds, interests and passions, and how these all come together to create a unique, invigorating learning environment. We call it the “learning continuum,” a field of relationships that encompasses everything from classroom learning to student clubs to your interactions with your classmates. As one Olin professor puts it, “The culture is the curriculum.” There are many elements that contribute to this distinctive culture.
COLLABORATION Olin is a creative, collaborative community in which teamwork is the default mode for getting things done. Sure, you’ll find some friendly competition among teams, but at the end of the day, we share a set of values and work together toward common goals.
OLIN’S UNUSUAL DUAL MISSION Olin was created to transform engineering education. This includes not only our revolutionary learning program, but also our determination to be a model for others. Olin’s unique founding story and mission give us a dynamism and energy that is palpable.
CLUBS AND ACTIVITIES U.S. News & World Report places Olin first in the nation among colleges and universities where it is easy for students to get involved in extracurricular activities. At this writing, we have some 50 clubs and organizations. Not bad for a student body of around 350. Start a photography club, an a cappella singing group or a poetry group—we’ll support you all the way!
GREAT STUDENTS We seek out multitalented, multidimensional students, so you’ll have fascinating classmates with really interesting backgrounds and interests. We’ve also made gender-balanced enrollment an important institutional goal, a rarity among engineering schools.
ROOM FOR PASSIONS We like people who are passionate about something, because big passions lead to big ideas and big deeds. We support your interests through programs like Passionate Pursuits, which gives college credit for the structured study of a personal interest.
curriculum Larissa Little ’14 CARNEGIE VANGUARD HIGH SCHOOL, HOUSTON, TEXAS PASSIONS LEARNING, READING, MAKING THINGS, NATURE, MUSIC AND ADVENTURES
I wasn’t planning on being an engineer when I applied to Olin, but I realized that engineering is essentially a way of thinking to solve problems. My favorite part of Olin is how real it can be. From talking to graduates and people in the fields I’m interested in, I know that the skills I’m gaining are practical and relevant to my future. I’m the vice president of CORe (the student government), in the Olin Conductorless Orchestra on viola and in an a capella group. I also love to dance and go out contra dancing every month or so with a group of friends.” olin.edu/view
Casey Karst ’13 HOUSTON HIGH SCHOOL, COLLIERVILLE, TENNESSEE PASSIONS NATURE, SCUBA, HIKING, CAMPING AND READING
I chose Olin because of how the school approached engineering and teaching in general. I liked the project-based learning and the noncompetitive attitude of the student body. I feel that Olin is teaching its students more than just the subjects that they are taking.”
WAYS STUDENTS CAN GET INVOLVED: > STUDENT GOVERNMENT The Council of Olin Representatives (CORe) is a studentelected, student-led body that serves the students of Olin College and represents them to other parties. Olin’s student government is unique in the strong ties it has to the college’s governance structure, its responsiveness to student initiatives and its central role as a hub of information relating to the student body. > PASSIONATE PURSUITS The Passionate Pursuits program enables students to develop their interests with the support and guidance of a faculty member and, in many cases, funding from the college. Examples of recent Passionate Pursuits include classical vocal technique, aerial silks, penny pressing, rock climbing, design and construction of a 3-D printer, and chocolate-making. > C OCURRICULAR OFFERINGS Olin’s cocurricular offerings combine fun and intellectual awareness. Faculty or staff members lead the cocurricular groups and give transcript notation to students with regular participation. Examples include Beekeeping, Composting, Current Events, Fundamentals of Public Speaking, Gender and Engineering Education, Hands-on Learning for Underserved Kids, Land Navigation, Material Matters, and Ornithology for Beginners.
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Beyond the Oval BREAKING GROUND, BREAKING OUT Olin students benefit from all that surrounds them—their own campus; the nearby campuses of Babson, Wellesley and Brandeis; the town of Needham; the high-tech mecca of Route 128; the city of Boston; the high-tech environs of Cambridge. Together, these localities give Olin students an incredibly broad range of educational and extracurricular opportunities. Then again, through the Away Program, the world is really Olin’s hometown. THREE-COLLEGE PARTNERSHIP Olin is collaborating with neighboring Babson and Wellesley colleges in an exciting and unusual partnership aimed at increasing the social and academic opportunities for students. Olin students have long been able to cross-register at these partner institutions, known for business/ entrepreneurship (Babson) and liberal arts (Wellesley). More recently, the three have explored joint academic programs, such as the crossdisciplinary Sustainability Certificate Program. BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY Olin students can also cross-register at Brandeis University, known for strengths in social science, history and Judaic studies. Olin students take courses in languages, theater, computer science and laboratory sciences.
BOSTON Accessible by public transportation or car, Boston offers the culture and resources of an international city. There are major museums, libraries, galleries, theater, ballet, the Red Sox and the Boston Symphony Orchestra––rich with both America’s history and what’s totally current. NEEDHAM Needham has all the features of an attractive small (30,000 pop.) New England town complete with a picturesque town hall, pleasant neighborhoods, a town center, churches, shopping, coffeehouses, restaurants and a library. ROUTE 128 Students take advantage of this concentration of companies, from startup to Fortune 500, including many marquee technology and biotech firms: Analog Devices, PTC, EMC, Genzyme, iRobot, MITRE Corp., Boston Scientific, Sun Microsystems, Raytheon and Thermo Electron Corp.
STUDY AWAY > One of the founding principles of Olin College is that each student should have the opportunity to have a learning experience “away” from the College. This ideal was articulated early in the creation of the college with the express objective of having students learn to be citizens of the world.
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2012-13 BOW INTERSESSION PROJECT > 12 students from Wellesley, Olin and Babson colleges worked together for two weeks on a consulting project for Practically Green, a Boston-based sustainability company. > Learn more by visiting their Tumblr: http://bowsolutions.tumblr.com/.
Mary Schmidt ’12 NORTH CANYON HIGH SCHOOL, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Mary earned her Master of Science in Management with a concentration in Technological Entrepreneurship from Babson College the day before she graduated from Olin with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. During her junior year at Olin, Mary decided to take full advantage of the Babson-Olin-Wellesley (BOW) partnership and enrolled in Babson’s M.S.M. program. The experience of taking Babson classes alongside Olin ones gave her a well-rounded understanding of entrepreneurship and what it takes to start your own business.
WITHIN THE OLIN OVAL An institution that wants to educate innovators needs an innovative setting. Olin’s campus more than fits the bill. Olin is one of the first educational institutions in the country to have a fully converged information technology network, creating a strong infrastructure for innovation. And every student at Olin is issued a laptop computer with professional software tools for engineering applications. The machine shop supports our hands-on curriculum by offering advanced machining and mechanical fabrication capabilities. • Princeton Review included our Residence Halls at #4 on its “Best College Dorms” ranking list. West Hall includes double rooms with private baths. The newest, East Hall, includes doubles and suites of six singles with two baths. • The Campus Center is the heart of campus life. It includes the main dining facility, student activity rooms and the Office of Student Life. • The Academic Center is where much of the learning takes place. It includes 27 major classrooms and labs, faculty labs and support rooms, the machine shop and music and arts studios. • Milas Hall is the administrative nerve center of the campus; it includes the President’s Office, the Admission Office, faculty offices, the IT Center, a 300-seat auditorium and a multistory atrium.
AND LET’S NOT FORGET … • Olin’s food is definitely something to write home about, with many tasty and healthy choices. And speaking of health, there are three residence hall exercise rooms to help students keep in shape. Plus, Olin’s unique relationship with Babson includes access to Babson’s athletic facilities, which offer indoor and outdoor basketball courts, an indoor swimming pool, an indoor track, an indoor ice skating rink, exercise classes, cardio equipment, free weights, weight machines and other exercise equipment. • Sports For students who enjoy team sports, Oliners may join Babson’s and Wellesley’s intramural leagues. We also have two competitive sports teams of our own, the Olin Soccer team in the fall and the Olin Ultimate team in the spring. • Health services Olin students have full access to Babson College’s health services, including diagnosis and treatment of illnesses, evaluation and treatment of injuries, gynecological care, and administration of immunizations and allergy injections. Additionally, Olin students may confidentially seek psychotherapy and psychiatric services with Olin’s consulting psychologists or psychiatrists.
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Join the journey Before Olin opened for its first class, we recruited 30 students to join us as “Olin Partners.” During that first year, these students worked closely with our founding faculty to design and test the curriculum and create a foundation for student life. The Partner Year, as it was called, taught us important lessons about making sure students are co-creators of the Olin experience. This tradition continues today. The student voice is an important component of all decisions we make, from curriculum to student life to facilities issues. This is consistent with our philosophy that students should take responsibility for their educational journey. At Olin, you have the opportunity to craft your own educational experience—in effect, to build your own college. Not only will you learn 21st-century skills, but you’ll learn how to keep learning, an ability that will be invaluable in an environment where knowledge has an increasingly brief shelf life. At Olin, you’ll get a great undergraduate experience, great outcomes and the foundation for a lifetime of professional growth and achievement. Who could beat that?
Jason (Junjie) Zhu ’14 SHANGHAI FOREIGN LANGUAGE SCHOOL, SHANGHAI, CHINA PASSIONS WIRELESS COMMUNICATIONS, MATHEMATICS, COOKING, CREATING NEW RECIPES AND BOSTON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA COCURRICULAR
Susan Fredholm-Murphy ’06 ALVIRNE HIGH SCHOOL, HUDSON, NEW HAMPSHIRE Susan Fredholm-Murphy is a senior consultant and manager at PE International in Boston. Susan graduated in 2006, with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, as a member of the inaugural class. In 2011 Susan was named the college’s first alumni trustee. As a founding student partner, Susan was an integral part of building the foundation of Olin’s curriculum and student life program.
Olin teaches us to be comfortable with the unknown and inspired to tackle large projects. We are not afraid of what we don’t know, and we know there are new things we need to learn along the way in each project.”
Olin provides a safe environment for us to experiment with new things and not worry about failing. The professors here are amazing and very helpful. I love it when they unexpectedly join us and start a fun conversation during lunch. Teamwork is what I think makes Olin different from other places. At this small school, we know each other very well and work on so many intense projects. Through the process, we know others even better and really learn more about our own strengths and weaknesses.”
PARTNERING WITH STUDENTS
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A different kind of LOOKING FOR THE RIGHT FIT A different kind of college needs students open to new ideas—and talented enough to exploit them to the max. Olin wants students who not only are academically accomplished but also like adventure, thrive on creativity and have an entrepreneurial streak—and come from every kind of cultural, economic and geographic background. Moreover, Olin continues to enroll one of the highest percentages of women among the nation’s engineering colleges. Many prospective Olin students are intrigued by the idea of helping to influence the future of engineering education while having an exceptionally personalized experience. And it’s no small consideration that each student receives a half-tuition merit scholarship! THE OLIN ADMISSION PROCESS: LIKE NO OTHER Selection to Olin is a two-stage process. Students apply to Olin using the Common Application. From an exceptionally talented and academically gifted applicant pool, we invite about 240 students to attend one of three Candidates’ Weekends. The college seeks to get to know the applicants’ personal qualities (like risk-taking, creativity, passion and team spirit) during these weekends of getting acquainted, group activities and interviews. Admission is offered to candidates who possess the greatest promise of contributing to—and benefiting from—the Olin experience. Following the Candidates Weekends, the Admission Committee makes offers of admission to approximately 135 students.
HOW TO APPLY Our application is available online at www.olin.edu. Because of our unique selection process, there is no Early Action or Early Decision policy. The deadline for applications is January 1. COSTS AND FINANCIAL AID Every enrolled student receives a guaranteed half-tuition merit scholarship. Families are responsible for room and board and fees. Those with financial need can apply for additional aid. More information is available at www.olin.edu/admission/costs-financial-aid COME VISIT US! The Office of Admission provides info sessions and student-led tours and can arrange day or overnight visits with current students. Please check our website for details: http://www.olin.edu/admission/visit Olin College of Engineering Office of Admission 781.292.2222 info@olin.edu olin.edu/admission/
THE OLIN STORY FOUNDING VISION: THE F. W. OLIN FOUNDATION The idea for Olin College goes back nearly two decades. That’s when the leaders of the engineering community—business, academia and government—became concerned that engineering as taught in most institutions no longer fit the challenges of the future. They began urging fundamental changes in engineering education, including a greater emphasis on entrepreneurship, teamwork, communication and interdisciplinary study. The F. W. Olin Foundation, long a leader in higher education philanthropy, stepped up to the challenge. The Foundation ultimately committed more than $460 million to the creation of Olin College, a new kind of engineering college that, through its innovative curriculum and invigorating learning culture, serves as a model and catalyst for the revitalization of engineering education.
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FOUNDING INSPIRATION: FRANKLIN W. OLIN (1860 – 1951) Franklin Walter Olin grew up in Vermont lumber camps and had little formal schooling after age 13. He continued his education through self-study, and eventually qualified for entrance to Cornell. There he studied civil engineering and captained the baseball team, setting a still-standing home run length record using a special curved bat he invented. He played professional baseball during the summers to finance his education. He went on to found one of the nation’s leading companies, the Olin Corporation, and a major philanthropic organization, the F. W. Olin Foundation.
Elizabeth (Allie) Duncan ’15 ST. MARY’S ACADEMY, LITTLETON, COLORADO PASSIONS MUSIC, SUSTAINABILITY AND OCEAN STEWARDSHIP, OLIN CONDUCTORLESS ORCHESTRA (VIOLIN), SOCCER, BOOK CLUB, SNOWBOARDING AND SCUBA DIVING
My fellow students are my favorite thing about Olin, and they differentiate Olin from other undergraduate engineering schools. Olin’s admission process very carefully selects the coolest, most passionate, most interesting people I have ever known.” 22:23
THE OLIN HONOR CODE The Honor Code is the underpinning of the curricular, co-curricular, social and personal life at Olin College. All Olin students sign the Honor Code, pledging to strive to embody the spirit of honor and integrity represented by the five core personal values: • • • • •
Integrity Respect for Others Passion for the Welfare of the College Patience and Understanding Openness to Change Students also pledge to “do something” to address any breach of the Honor Code.
22/23 CONCEPT AND DESIGN Sametz Blackstone Associates PRINCIPAL PHOTOGRAPHY MJ Maloney, Alex Budnitz ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY Johannes Santen ’12, Christopher Gallello ’12,
Claire Barnes ’15, Mariko Thorbecke ’16, Courtland Wilson
Printed on paper containing at least 10% post-consumer fiber NONDISCRIMINATION STATEMENT Olin College does not discriminate in admission, employment, or other college-administered programs on the basis of race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, gender, religion, disability, age, sexual orientation, or veteran, marital or citizenship status.
© 2014 Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering || ADM_PROS-B-4000_020814
ranklin W. Olin College of Engineering F Olin Way Needham, MA 02492-1200 phone: 781.292.2300 olin.edu
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