MIT School of Engineering

MIT School of Engineering
MIT Building 1
Pierce Engineering Laboratory
Established1932
DeanPaula T. Hammond
Location
Cambridge
,
Massachusetts
,
United States

42°21′32″N 71°05′33″W / 42.35896°N 71.09244°W / 42.35896; -71.09244
Websiteengineering.mit.edu

The MIT School of Engineering (SoE) is one of the five schools of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1932 as part of the reorganization of the Institute recommended by President Karl Taylor Compton. SoE has eight academic departments and two interdisciplinary institutes. The School grants SB, MEng, SM, engineer's degrees, and PhD or ScD degrees. As of 2026, the Dean of Engineering is Professor Paula T. Hammond. The school is the largest at MIT as measured by undergraduate and graduate enrollments and faculty members.

MIT's School of Engineering is the largest of the Institute's five schools. It enrolls roughly 70 percent of MIT's undergraduate majors and 45 percent of its graduate students. Although just over a third of the faculty belong to the school, they account for more than half of MIT's sponsored research.

History

Beginning in 1932, MIT required a "redistribution of responsibilities" owing to the increasing administrative complexity of managing the various departments which had existed from the Institute's founding. As new president of MIT, Karl Taylor Compton established three schools as "administrative corrals for the departments."

Alongside the School of Science and the School of Architecture, the School of Engineering was organized, to be led by Vannevar Bush, who was made dean and vice-president of the Institute.

Departments and institutes

The school includes eight departments:

In addition, the following MIT institutes are within the school:

Departments and degree programs are commonly referred to by course catalog numbers on campus.

Interdisciplinary Graduate Programs

Source:

Laboratories and research centers

The following labs and centers report to the Dean of Engineering:

Programs and Initiatives

Source:

2020 changes

The Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems were moved to the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing upon its creation, and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Institute for Data, Systems and Society are now administered jointly.[citation needed]

Ranking

In 2026, U.S. News and World Report designated MIT as the top school in its annual rankings of the nation’s best universities. MIT’s engineering program led the rankings of undergraduate engineering programs at a doctoral institution, and five engineering specialities placed first: aerospace/aeronautical/astronautical engineering; chemical engineering; electrical/electronic/communication engineering; materials engineering; and mechanical engineering.

Former MIT Deans of Engineering

References

  1. ↑ "MIT School of Engineering: About". MIT. Archived from the original on January 5, 2007. Retrieved August 13, 2007.
  2. ↑ "Mission and Values". MIT School of Engineering. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
  3. 1 2 Wylie, Francis E. (1975). M.I.T. in perspective: a pictorial history of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1st ed.). Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 978-0-316-96200-1.
  4. ↑ "School of Engineering". Retrieved January 19, 2021.
  5. ↑ "Dean, School of Engineering | MIT Organization Chart". orgchart.mit.edu. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
  6. ↑ "Dean, School of Engineering | MIT Organization Chart". orgchart.mit.edu. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
  7. ↑ "Reporting List". MIT Organization Chart. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved May 3, 2026.
  8. ↑ "Dean, School of Engineering | MIT Organization Chart". orgchart.mit.edu. Retrieved September 30, 2026.
  9. 1 2 "MIT named the nation's top university by U.S. News for 2026-27". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. September 22, 2026. Retrieved September 30, 2026.