Published: April 23, 2019

Dear CU Engineering Community:

Global engagement is a cornerstone of the strategic vision for the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Our aim is to graduate engineers with global experience, to lead in international project-based learning, to attract scholars from all over the world through strategic international partnerships and to develop technical solutions locally that can be exported globally to impact the world’s economy, security and quality of life.

This edition of CU Engineering magazine introduces you to just a few of the ways we are demonstrating our commitment to this vision. Beyond these pages, there are many more stories.

Through the Mortenson Center, students will spend this summer engaged in international fieldwork in 15 countries, including Rwanda, Cambodia, Ecuador and Greece. They are working with partner agencies including Bridges to Prosperity, the International Federation of the Red Cross, Water for People and the World Bank on a range of engineering solutions to benefit society.

International programs offered by the college provide engineering students with a broad array of opportunities to expand their perspectives, design solutions with impact and gain valuable experience engaging with other cultures. Each year, more of our engineering students are going abroad. To encourage this, the college has partnered with more than 25 international universities to offer 1,000 technical courses that count toward an engineering degree.

Students also have the opportunity to extend their campus coursework with global intensives led by faculty. This May, engineering professor and Engineers Without Borders USA founder Bernard Amadei and faculty across campus will travel with students to Brazil. Alongside community leaders and government officials, they will explore the development challenges threatening two of the world’s most important tropical forests.

Closer to home, we prepare students for work with global teams through our undergraduate minor in global engineering. Launched in 2016, the minor expands students’ understanding of how to operate in an international context from an engineering perspective and of the impact of engineering solutions in a global, economic, environmental and societal context.

Our alumni around the globe are important members of this community. You will read about some of them here, and I am eager to connect with more of you to hear about your accomplishments and impact. From Boulder, Colorado, to every place on Earth, our students, alumni, faculty and staff are building a better world. There are many more stories to tell.

All the best,

Robert D. Braun signature

Dean Robert D. Braun