SJSU Catalog

College of Engineering

The College of Engineering offers ten engineering curricula leading to BS and MS degrees in aerospace, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, general, industrial and systems, materials, mechanical and software engineering. The college also has BS degree programs in aviation and in technology and a MS degree program in quality assurance . California provides, through community colleges, the California State University and the University of California, coordinated educational programs designed to meet local and statewide needs in engineering and engineering technology.

College Vision

To be a learning community that empowers its students to better the world through innovative applications of engineering knowledge and skills.

Better the World

To achieve this vision, we intend to implement programs that will provide students an understanding of the social and economic context in which technologies are developed and used. Further, students also need to gain a firm ethical grounding, and guidance for their beneficial applications. The applications could be for social benefit, economic advancement, security, or the environmental sustainability of the world. In particular, our students need to understand the economic forces that shape the role of American engineers in today’s competitive global economy.

Engineering Knowledge and Skills

Engineers develop their capabilities based on scientific knowledge and analytical methods. Our students need to acquire a solid foundation in the knowledge and methods that will prepare them for life-long learning in today’s rapidly advancing world of technology. Further, in order to be competitive, our students must have superior knowledge of engineering theory and honed skills in the application of theory-to-practice. They need to master engineering topics that correspond to industry issues and trends as well as evolving global requirements.

Innovative Applications

In addition to learning engineering theory and skills, our students must have opportunities to learn innovation-a capability highly valued in today’s global economy. Given its close ties to Silicon Valley industry, the College is in a unique position to focus its efforts on developing innovative applications of technologies. Innovation, defined as the development and exercise of creative processes to “see” beyond limits and boundaries, has the entrepreneurial quality of understanding and meeting customers’ needs. It often occurs across disciplinary boundaries with contributing members having various functional expertise. Further, the ability to innovate contributes directly to the success of enterprises. Our vision for the College articulates our aspiration to inspire and educate our students to develop engineering capabilities as well as to understand the context in which such capabilities are used with the end goal of benefiting humanity.

College Mission

The following mission statement provides guidance for achieving the College’s vision: We will provide empowering educational opportunities to students for their technical professional and social development in a competitive and dynamic global society. We will build a vibrant community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and industry professionals through strategic collaborations with Silicon Valley, California, national and global partners.

Special Centers/Institutes

The Center for Electronic Materials and Devices provides support services for instruction, research and projects in the area of electronic materials and devices. Its goal is to develop partnerships and joint projects with the industrial community utilizing resources of faculty, students and specific laboratories.

The mission of the Networked Intelligent Software Agents (NISA) Center is to serve as a center of excellence for the systematic creation and dissemination of a body of knowledge in agent technology and ultimately to impact next-generation products and service systems with new, high-quality function. The core technology mission of the NISA Center consortium is to facilitate the interoperation and inter-working between agents across multiple, heterogeneous agent systems. To this purpose, NISA will be working on specifications that range from agent platform architectures to support communicating agents, semantic communication languages and content languages for expressing messages and interaction protocols that expand the scope from single messages to complete transactions.

The Institute for Research in Environmental Engineering and Science is composed of a multi-disciplinary group of faculty members who are interested in applied research with an environmental focus. The mission of the Institute is to stimulate and facilitate environmental research with a specific emphasis on extra-murally funded projects with an engineering and science focus.

MESA Engineering Program (MEP)

The goal of MEP is to increase the number of competent and qualified graduates entering the engineering profession from traditionally under-represented and economically disadvantaged groups. MEP actively recruits students, provides support services until graduation and acts as liaison with companies offering employment experiences. MEP assists students with admissions, academic and personal counseling, financial aid and scholarships, housing and registration. MEP maintains a study center for tutoring, workshops, individual and group study and social functions. A summer job placement program assists students in obtaining jobs in industry.

Community for Engineering Learning and Living

Community for Engineering Learning and Living (CELL) is a themed living community offered by the University Housing Services for first year engineering students. CELL’s objectives are to provide a cooperative learning environment, to encourage and build the engineering community and to foster a sense of belonging and responsibility to the community. Through facilitated study groups, CELL students will experience the academic support and cooperation of a community committed to academic success. CELL students will have regular access to faculty, advisors and industry professionals through workshops and programs. CELL is about shared experiences and creating a vibrant and caring engineering community