Mission of Northwestern University

The mission of Northwestern University is to establish and enhance excellence in its academic and professional programs. This includes superior undergraduate education for a highly selective student body in a comprehensive range of academic and professional fields. At the graduate level, Northwestern's role encompasses offerings in the major academic and professional fields, closely related to research, creative activities, and clinical services. The research program at Northwestern is a major component of University efforts, assuring institutional leadership in scientific discovery, intellectual inquiry, and creative performance. The character of this research shapes all areas of University endeavor, especially graduate education as well as undergraduate studies.

In its effort to fulfill its unique potential for combining the best features of world-class research institutions with the advantages of smaller, teaching-oriented schools, Northwestern seeks to maintain the highest standards of teaching excellence in all divisions of the University. Teaching is given significant weight in faculty personnel decisions, and special programs have been instituted to strengthen and reward the teaching skills of faculty members.

Through teaching and research, the University also serves society. Northwestern continues its commitment to diversity in its student body. Further, it is the role of the University to participate vigorously in discussions of important public policy issues and to engage in selective, cooperative ventures with government and private organizations external to the University.

Vision of the McCormick School's Educational Programs

Our vision is to be one of the top engineering schools in the nation, as evidenced by our ability to recruit the very best students, faculty, and staff; to foster creativity among these groups - resulting in superior creative output in interdisciplinary research and teaching; to make outstanding contributions to solving today's global challenges; and to embrace research opportunities wherever they may be.

Goals of the McCormick Education

Goal 1: The McCormick Undergraduate programs educate students broadly in the fundamentals of science and engineering disciplines, while stimulating them to become innovative thinkers who can deal with complex issues in a changing environment.

McCormick is therefore obligated to:

• Require curricula that include strong components of science, mathematics, and the principles on which engineering is based.
• Integrate programmatic and extracurricular experiences with innovation processes.
• Include activities that include substantial multidisciplinary participation.
• Provide an environment in which students can be involved in research, in order to understand and advance the frontiers of scientific and technological development.

Goal 2: The McCormick Undergraduate education prepares students for a professional engineering career in a competitive world.

McCormick is therefore obligated to:

• Develop attributes of professionalism, as they relate to the special preparation offered by and engineering education
• Enrich the diversity of our faculty and student body, so that the McCormick experience reflects all aspects of the cultures in which our graduates will subsequently pursue their careers.
• Enhance the ways in which our students experience engineering internationalism.

Goal 3: The McCormick Undergraduate education prepares students to understand and contribute to technology, no matter what career they subsequently pursue.

McCormick is therefore obligated to:

• Engage students in the widest possible array of technologies, both on and off campus.
• Support students in imaginative career planning, as they complete their degree programs.

Goal 4: The McCormick Undergraduate programs interact with engineering communities, both local and in society at large, to be involved in the beneficial ways that technological advances and applications of research results are put into practice.

McCormick is therefore obligated to:

• Seek opportunities for students to do work that is of value to all communities with which Northwestern is associated.
• Sustain strong links between national professional societies and our student chapters.

Individual Program Outcomes and Objectives

Applied Mathematics
Biomedical Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil Engineering
Computer Engineering
Computer Science
Electrical Engineering
Environmental Engineering
Industrial Engineering
Manufacturing and Design Engineering
Materials Science and Engineering
Mechanical Engineering