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school of engineering and applied science

UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

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school of engineering and applied science dean’s letter

More than 250 years ago, Benjamin Franklin, founder of the University of Pennsylvania, envisioned an academic institution where classical learning would be united with a sound practical education in the arts and sciences. In Ben's own words, students ought to receive “everything that is practical and everything that is ornamental.” Today Penn, the oldest university in the nation, is fulfilling that vision by preparing students for a technological world, a world where leadership goes to those who have learned how to combine the practical and the ornamental. It is very exciting to witness how technology is transforming our times and our lives, no longer on a scale of decades but of years and even months. A successful career through such changing times requires graduates to be endowed with skills that transcend the details of any one job. We must also provide a forum to instill those traits that are more difficult to teach: ethics, integrity, ambition, creativity and leadership. Such is the result of an education that pays much more attention to the fundamental than to the trendy, to the creative more than to the rote. Engineers must be firmly educated as responsible citizens, concerned with the impact of their work on society. Penn Engineering prepares its students for the creation, application, and management of technology through rigorous and advanced curricula and teaching methods. Innovation drives our every curriculum and transforms the fundamentals of what engineers will be learning. Our graduates go on to leadership roles in engineering, technology, and other careers such as business, medicine, and law, for which creativity, rigorous quantitative thinking, effective communication skills, and a strong commitment to human values are essential. Penn Engineering and the University of Pennsylvania are defining a new type of...