Be an Engineer Now
SOLVE PROBLEMS NOW At Olin, you can collaboratively tackle real-world challenges as soon as you get to campus!
We make / build / engineer / discover… Olin engineers… Make things that are designed specifically for people — we work with users to design for their needs. Make the world a better place Just ask the Shop Drop Roll team — they’ve built a wheelchair attachment that simplifies the transport and accessibility of goods for people who use wheelchairs. olin.edu/shop-drop-roll Gain the tools necessary to leave Olin and start a company (like Bigbelly, Skydio or Opus 12) or join well-established ones (like Microsoft, Google, athenahealth, Blue Origin or Synapse) or head off to graduate school (at places like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Carnegie Mellon or Cornell).
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At Olin, learning is… Experimental: You will participate in and give feedback on new classes during your four years, maybe more than once. Hands-on: 3/4 of the classes you take will involve projects. Fun: You’ll be using laser cutters as well as CNC routers and mills, solving problems, making friends, joining teams, exploring Boston, eating great food and changing the world!
Our community is supportive, creative and changing the face of STEM education around the world!
CURRICULUM ENGINEERING FROM DAY ONE
At Olin, students start engineering right away, with four classes in the first year — Design Nature, Introduction to Sensors, Instrumentation and Measurement (ISIM), and Quantitative Engineering Analysis (QEA) — that provide hands-on experiences in several areas of engineering and entrepreneurship (Products + Markets) too. We’ve shaped the curriculum so that every student learns about software, electronics and mechanical systems, and has several chances to work with students from other majors on interdisciplinary projects.
Majors ECE: Electrical & Computer Engineering ME: Mechanical Engineering E: Engineering (concentrations include bioengineering, computing, design, robotics and design your own)
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student: faculty ratio
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Our faculty care a lot about delivering a transformational learning experience. Most have chosen to forgo comfortable, tenured positions at other prestigious colleges and universities to be part of Olin’s exciting educational experiment. Having no academic departments frees faculty to create innovative and interdisciplinary learning experiences. A student is likely to see an anthropologist and an engineer offering a class together, or a chemistry professor and a historian. Students learn engineering in context and see faculty members taking risks and modeling teamwork.
CLASS SNAPSHOT QUANTITATIVE ENGINEERING ANALYSIS (QEA) QEA is a new, multi-semester course in which students learn linear algebra, multivariable calculus and physics concepts and apply them to projects such as boat design and facial recognition algorithms.
QEA has been my favorite class so far. It was really fun creating facial recognition software using linear algebra.” HWEI-SHIN ’21 NOVATO, C ALIFORNIA
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QEA Teaching Team: John Geddes, Professor of Applied Mathematics Paul Ruvolo, Associate Professor of Computer Science Jeff Dusek, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Whitney Lohmeyer, Assistant Professor of Engineering Emily Tow, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering
CLASS SNAPSHOT INTRODUCTION TO SENSORS, INSTRUMENTATION & MEASUREMENT (ISIM)
ISIM is a first-semester course in which students collect and analyze data, conduct basic error analysis, and design experimental systems. Using inexpensive modern sensors, they build the necessary supporting electronics and learn to gather data with computer-based data acquisition systems. ISIM Teaching Team: Alessandra Ferzoco, Assistant Professor of Measurement Science Sam Michalka, Assistant Professor of Computational Neuroscience and Engineering Carrie Nugent, Assistant Professor of Computational Physics and Planetary Science Linda Vanasupa, Professor of Materials Engineering
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#3
Best Undergrad Engineering Program, U.S. News & World Report
develop industryready skills & industrydisrupting ideas
VISIT
olin.edu/ academic-life/ experience/ engineering-capstone/
Our students work with fellow students from neighboring colleges Babson and Wellesley to apply the skills they’ve learned in their first three years to real-world challenges.
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ENGINEERING CAPSTONES SENIOR CAPSTONE PROGRAM IN ENGINEERING (SCOPE) Over the course of a full academic year, seniors work in multidisciplinary teams to provide innovative solutions to a company’s real-world problems.
Amazon Robotics Smart Sortation
Sample Projects
Boeing Improving the Wire Harness Manufacturing Process
Arthur G. Russell Multivariable Vibratory Test Platform
Boston Scientific Developing Next-Generation Endoscope Technology Consortium of Universities for the Advancement of Hydrologic Science Inc. (CUAHSI) Improving the Usability of a Cloud-Based Water Data Analysis Platform
Ford Motor Company Level 3 Autonomy From the Ground Up GE Healthcare Adjustable PET/CT Scanner Accessory Sonos Product Manufacturing Test Optimization Toyota Motor North America Redesigning the Personal Mobility Experience
ENGINEERING CAPSTONES AFFORDABLE DESIGN & ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ADE) ADE is one of our yearlong senior capstone programs that can also be taken as a one-semester design depth course. Through ADE, faculty and students work with communities around the world to address the effects of poverty and lack of opportunity, creating products and social ventures that improve aspects of human life, such as food security, education and air quality. Students can further develop tools for achieving social and environmental impact through additional courses in environmental science and environmental engineering. Working to have an impact on poverty alleviation brings students faceto-face with pervasive social challenges related to civil rights, environmental justice, economic mobility and structural inequality.
Students in ADE take one of five tracks: Global Health Asset Value Child Education Community Development Food Processing
VISIT
olin.edu/ ade
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Meet an ADE Team Designing Warmers for High-Risk Infants The ADE Global Health team is working to realize a product started by Design that Matters, a firm specializing in medical equipment for use in lowresource contexts. The team is helping create a baby warmer, called Otter, designed to allow rural hospitals with limited resources to treat premature and low-birthweight newborns. These fragile babies are especially vulnerable to hypothermia. Otter is designed to provide a warm, clean environment that could prevent deaths from hypothermia.
TRANSFORMATIVE INTERNSHIP EXPERIENCES Hands-on experience doesn’t stop when our students leave campus for the summer. They head off to internships or stay on campus to do research with our faculty. Top summer intern employers Accelerate Wind Form Energy GE Microsoft NASA Onshape SharkNinja Shift
We hired two Olin interns in 2016. I had to encourage our lab director to consider undergrads, and after he interviewed two from Olin, he said they were both so impressive he couldn’t decide which to hire. We brought both students on, and what a terrific experience it turned out to be!
Our Ph.D. scientists were blown away by how fast those students learned their way around our lab and began contributing in meaningful ways — they were smart, eager and interested, and had wonderful ‘can do’ attitudes. We were sad to see them leave at the end of the summer.”
R. DOUGLAS K AHN CHAIRMAN & CEO, TETRA GENETICS
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Without a doubt, my summer at Mitsubishi was one of my biggest learning experiences ever! I met two visiting research engineers from the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation R&D center in Kanagawa, Japan, early in the spring 2019 semester. I talked about some in-class and other projects that I was part of, while they described to me their processes and ongoing projects. When I followed up with them, they offered me a unique opportunity. I was the first intern in the Human Machine Systems group – they said they had created the internship for me, which was very cool. This was an amazing summer, not only because I was practicing new programming languages but also because I was designing for a completely different audience than I had in the past.”
SPARSH ’22 FARIDABAD, INDIA
100% of the 2019 graduating class did at least one internship or research experience during their time at Olin.
INNOVATIVE THINKING IN A CREATIVE ENVIRONMENT CREATES A REVOLUTIONARY EDUCATION Olin seeks students who are open to new ideas and new ways of thinking. Students who want to use these ideas to change the world. Students who are every bit as adventurous, creative and entrepreneurial as they are academically accomplished.
Because of our unique community and approach, we do things a bit differently. Admission to Olin is a twostep process: 1
Students apply to Olin using the Common Application or the Coalition Application — the deadline is January 1. 2
From an exceptionally talented and academically gifted pool, we invite about 230 students to attend one of three Candidates’ Weekends (virtual for 2021). Attendance is mandatory if you wish to be considered for admission.
QUICK FACTS
347 degree-seeking students 51% female-identified 39% domestic students of color Representing 41 states and 11 countries 8% are first-generation college students 1 out of 7 applicants is admitted to Olin 42 full-time faculty, 50% female-identified
Be an Engineer Now
OWN
YOUR EXPERIENCE The Olin Effect Noun. The heightened state of engagement, creativity & productivity that comes from taking control of your own education. ILLUSTRATION BY
Jeremy ’20
The Olin Effect NOUN. The heightened state of engagement, creativity and productivity that comes from taking control of your own education
Create your path At Olin, we want our students to experience learning not just in formal and technical ways, but also as explorers and creators who design their own paths. Learning and fun happen everywhere — in group experiences such as facultyled classes, student-led independent studies and cocurriculars (where students, faculty and staff come together around common interests); in student clubs and organizations, ranging from highly structured engineering competition teams to service organizations, social clubs and sports teams; in exploring the boundaries of knowledge and innovation working on research projects with faculty; and by pursuing new ideas and passions through independent studies and Passionate Pursuits.* *One-credit projects students
propose, get funding from the school for and then work on (with the guidance of a professor) over the course of a semester
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BLOG EXCERPTS
The Olinsider By Anusha ’21 Burlington, Massachusetts Olin’s a really small school, and that might make you think that it would limit what you can do with your education. After all, there are only so many faculty members [and] students with matching interests and resources/spaces in which to work (though it’s worth noting that Olin has an impressive amount of resources for students). Amazingly, Olin students have a lot of freedom to create and personalize their own learning opportunities both inside and outside the classroom … olin.edu/blog/ the-olinsider For example, I’m really interested in embedded software and radio. Traditionally, Oliners don’t work with this material until sophomore year, because that is where these topics fall in the curriculum. I don’t really want to wait a whole year before pursuing the topics I am interested in. Luckily, I don’t have to — from working on firmware for the Formula Electric Vehicles team to writing a software-defined radio controller for my Passionate Pursuit, there are plenty of ways in which I can get support for pursuing my personal interests.
Classes are also extremely flexible — most projects are really open-ended, so you can pursue your specific interests deeply.
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Personalizing your Olin education
At Olin, students actively create knowledge through research. Beginning as early as the summer after their first year, students often do research with faculty members. Faculty members mentor students in all types of externally facing work. These real-world and impactful learning experiences provide our students with the confidence, skills and mindsets to persist in their future academic and professional pursuits.
Projects include
User-Oriented Smart Powered Mobility FACULTY LEAD
Jeff Dusek, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering STUDENT RESEARCHERS
Alison ’21, Sabrina ’21, Adrian ’21
UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
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Thermal insulation performance of quilts and other textile reuse methods FACULTY LEAD
Emily Tow, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering STUDENT RESEARCHERS
Anna ’22, Tommy ’21, Brandon ’21 & Shawn ’21
Access to undergraduate research is unprecedented at Olin because all of our students are undergraduates.
VISIT
olin.edu/ research-impact
Annie ’23
Bayside, New York
I aided in developing a positionsensing wearable to help visuallyimpaired swimmers better navigate the pool, which was awesome to work on as a former competitive swimmer. Outside of engineering, I enjoy film analysis and experimenting with digital art. I also love climbing, stand up comedy, and expanding my record collection.”
Efficient Biomimetic Swimming for Miniature Underwater Robots
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At Olin, our students are the authors and the main characters of their educational narrative and no two pathways are the same. Sure, each student chooses a major, but they also plan sequences of courses to address technical and nontechnical learning goals, select projects within many courses and even design unique activities that span the learning continuum. We feel that autonomy is a means to a good education and also an end in itself, to prepare our graduates for the choices that will help them change the world.” Rob Martello Professor of the History of Science & Technology
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Dylan ’22 OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
James ’22 SURREY, CANADA
Utsav ’21 DELHI, INDIA
A fundamental element of Olin culture is trust. The Olin Honor Code is written and maintained by students. THE HONOR CODE VALUES INCLUDE
Integrity Respect for Others Passion for the Welfare of the College Openness to Change “Do Something”
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Efe ’23 KARSIYAKA, TURKEY
Emma ’21 WESTWOOD, MASSACHUSETTS
We are Olin
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Sabrina ’21 KATY, TEXAS
We are committed to actively building an inclusive environment that honors a plurality of ideas, counters bias and practices collaboration.
Jerry ’22 LYNWOOD, CALIFORNIA
We create our intentional community of thinkers, problem-solvers and engineer-innovators to engineer a better world, starting with our campus!
Libby ’21 BUXTON, NORTH CAROLINA
Jasmine ’22 NEW HYDE PARK, NEW YORK
Founded to reinvent engineering education with a humancentric approach, Olin strives to be a diverse community that examines and solves problems through many perspectives.
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Cory ’23 SYRACUSE, NEW YORK
Casey ’22 HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA
Annie ’22 PLEASANTON, CALIFORNIA
BEYOND THE CLASSROOM CO-CURRICULARS, PASSIONATE PURSUITS & CLUBS
At Olin, there is no shortage of opportunities to discover new things or pursue interests outside of the classroom. Co-curriculars are noncredit activities, often led by faculty or staff, that combine fun and intellectual awareness, such as making maple syrup, guiding visually impaired athletes, current events, origami or sustainable beekeeping. Passionate Pursuits are one-credit projects students propose, get funding from the school for and work on (with the guidance of a professor) over the course of a semester, such as leather working, rock climbing, pilot training or songwriting.
In addition to co-curriculars and passionate pursuits, you’re welcome to join one of our many (45+) clubs and organizations, such as the Council of Olin Representatives (CORe), Society of Women Engineers (SWE), Olin Fire Arts Club (OFAC), Stay Late and Create (SLAC), PowerChords, Outing Club or Olin Baja.
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Hwei-Shin ’21
Passionate Pursuit: Study of Ballet at Boston Ballet Clubs & other activities: Formula SAE (mechanical team), Ultimate Frisbee, Sam Michalka’s Human Augmentation Research Lab (AR/VR team)
We’re a collaborative community of… of
team players Photos courtesy of Braden ’21 @olinengineer on Instagram
Learning happens everywhere … in student clubs and organizations; in exploring the boundaries of knowledge and innovation by working on research projects with faculty; and by pursuing new ideas and passions through independent studies, co-curriculars and passionate pursuits.
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PowerChords and studied voice at Wellesley as part of my AHS concentration in music, and I learned to spin poi with the Fire Arts Club!” Braden ’23
who want to work hard
LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, CALIFORNIA
and have some serious fun!
meet.olin.edu
In my first year, in addition to tackling several projects, I co-founded Olin’s rocketry team and served as the lead systems engineer. I sang with
AFFORDING OLIN Olin Tuition Scholarship Need-Based Aid
AFFORDABILITY FACTS
Currently valued at more than $100,000, the merit-based Olin Tuition Scholarship benefits all enrolled students. Offered for eight semesters of study and covering half the tuition charges, this scholarship recognizes achievement inside and outside the classroom and represents our confidence in your ability to succeed in this unique academic environment. Our goal is to attract talented students committed to making a difference in the world, and partner with them to make an Olin education a reality.
2019-20 INCOMING CLASS
Olin is committed to affordability and not letting finances stand in the way of an Olin education. In addition to the Olin Tuition Scholarship, Olin meets full demonstrated need for all eligible students.
olin.edu/admission/ costs-financial-aid
Olin Tuition Scholarship: $26,082 awarded to 100% of enrolled students ranged from $26,082 to $75,939 54% qualified for need-based assistance
$100,000 in merit-based scholarship to each enrolled student
Be an Engineer Now
ENGINEER A BETTER WORLD At Olin, students learn to recognize real needs, design human-centered solutions and make the world a better place!
WE BELIEVE THAT THE TRUE GOAL OF ENGINEERING IS TO
make people’s lives & our world better. That’s why at Olin, engineering is “people inspired.” This design-based approach is a fundamental part of Olin’s learning experience and one that is being emulated now by colleges across the country.
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This focus is exemplified in courses such as User-Oriented Collaborative Design, in which students intensively study the needs of selected “user groups” (such as first responders or dog handlers) before they even begin to think about designing products for them. The point is to learn design through a collaborative process where the first question is: “What would make this person’s life better?”
VISIT
olin.edu/ user-oriented-collaborative-design/
Actively practicing design and engineering by talking to real people under the guidance of professors reminded me why I chose engineering and Olin. UOCD pushed me to grow in an environment where it felt safe and necessary. I was then able to apply these skills to my internship where I worked with users to design and implement a foot support device for kayak users.” ERIK A ’21 SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
CLASS SNAPSHOT AFFORDABLE DESIGN & ENTREPRENEURSHIP (ADE)
ADE PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Equipping Ghanaian Women With Small-Scale Food Processing Machines The team is helping create mini postharvest processing machines accessible to women who produce value-added foods to reduce their burden and grow their small businesses.
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ADE provides an opportunity to develop technologies and ventures that meet the daily needs of the world’s poorest people. ADE projects are ongoing, year-to-year initiatives that allow students and faculty to collaborate across continents, working with partner communities to develop low-tech, immediately beneficial products, such as safer rickshaws for the men who pull these pedal-powered carts through the city streets of Guwahati, India. Or, in Ghana where a team works to develop ways to help women process food they harvest by inventing products these women can both use and sell to increase their income. ADE Teaching Team: Ben Linder, Program Co-Director Craig Bida, Lead Faculty and CoDirector of Babson Collaboration Elizabeth Johansen, Visiting Designer Kofi Taha, Visiting Designer Scott Hersey, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Environmental Engineering Amon Millner, Associate Professor of Computing and Innovation Erhardt Graeff, Assistant Professor of Social and Computer Science
VISIT
olin.edu/ade
Engineering can be very abstract, and in ADE, students come face-toface with people in need, and as a consequence it becomes very concrete and real—what they’re doing in engineering, along with why they’re doing it.” BENJAMIN LINDER, PH.D. PROFESSOR OF DESIGN AND MECHANIC AL ENGINEERING, AND ADE PROGRAM CO-DIRECTOR
CLASS SNAPSHOT ENGINEERING FOR HUMANITY (E4H) In E4H, students pair up with older adults to design solutions that address a particular challenge they face. The course introduces students to engineering problemsolving, beginning with understanding client needs and ending with implementable solutions that are adaptable, adoptable and sustainable. The solutions are specific service projects that students identify and design while working with senior citizens in surrounding communities.
Examples include: A device to help someone who has difficulty reaching up to change a light bulb A tool to help hold a newspaper steady with shaky hands A solution that makes it easier to get clothes out of a dryer that is difficult to stoop down to reach into
E4H Teaching Team: Caitrin Lynch, Professor of Anthropology Ela Ben-Ur, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Design
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A STUDENT PERSPECTIVE
olin.edu/blog-post/e4h
In TAD, student teams work with a community partner who is blind or visually impaired. Using this lens, they examine the ways in which technology can both enhance and diminish access to economic, social and informational resources. Building from this perspective, students will learn about design processes and implementation strategies for maximizing the accessibility of the technologies they build. Potential project areas include (but are not limited to) educational technologies, high-and-low-tech navigational aids, technologies to enhance participation in recreational activities, and software to enhance web and mobile accessibility.
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TAD Teaching Team: Caitrin Lynch, Professor of Anthropology Paul Ruvolo, Assistant Professor of Computer Science
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CLASS SNAPSHOT TECHNOLOGY, ACCESSIBILITY & DESIGN (TAD)
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CLASS SNAPSHOT DESIGNING RESOURCES FOR EMPOWERMENT & MAKING (DREAM) In the DREAM studio, students work on individual and group projects that examine and address inequalities in communities. They learn how to develop empowering experiences through handson making. Students identify and harness the properties of the tools, activities, people and spaces associated with the maker movement to enable a target group to feel empowered to make things, make a difference and make their own way. Projects range from developing Snapchat filters to exposing hidden histories of underrepresented makers in Massachusetts to designing curricula for fabricating musical instruments in mobile maker spaces (trailers) in Mississippi.
Amon Millner, Assistant Professor of Computing & Innovation
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PROJECT SPOTLIGHT
Buzzbots These little critters were created by Zack ’20. They are fun to snap together, and when the legs and bodies are joined together with a small lithium battery, the bots buzz around a table. The insectlike creatures were fabricated on a 3D printer and shown at MITx week.
ALUMNI CHANGING THE WORLD
Etosha Cave ’06
Co-Founder, Opus 12 Opus 12 is an innovative environmental startup that hopes to become a game-changer in the energy business. The company’s technology takes carbon dioxide from oil refineries, natural gas plants and oil fields, which produce some 100 million tons of carbon emissions per year, and repurposes it to make highervalue chemicals such as ethanol, a source of fuel for cars. Opus 12 is the winner of the Forbes Change the World Competition and was a finalist in Fortune magazine’s clean startup competition.
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Jeff Satwicz ’06
Co-Founder and Director of Product Strategy, Bigbelly As a member of Olin’s first class, Jeff immediately put his skills to good use. After meeting Babson graduate Jim Poss at an on-campus event in 2002, the two set out to conceptualize and create the first Bigbelly solar trash compactor. Jeff continued to work on Bigbelly 20-30 hours a week during his four years at Olin. The rest is history. Today the smart waste management system is deployed in communities, campuses and organizations in over 50 countries.
meet.olin.edu
Olin challenged us to think of a group of people facing a problem, try to understand their needs and see what solutions may fit.”
At Olin we value experiential, project-based learning; collaboration; and real-world problemsolving as our vehicles for preparing the next generation of culturally, globally and technologically competent leaders who value diversity as a necessary requirement for excellence and innovation. My mission has always been to make sure that opportunities are provided to people who haven’t traditionally had access. This is deeply personal to me as a woman of color in a technical field such as engineering. I have dedicated my career to pursuing equity in education, and I believe places such as Olin have a particularly important role to play at this pivotal time in the history of our nation, higher education and Olin College. We need you—the curious and talented engineers and scientists of tomorrow—to help us chart this exciting future.
Gilda A. Barabino, Ph.D. President
Among recent graduates
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are employed or in graduate school (within six months of graduation)
3
2% 8
are employed or starting their own business
1% 1
are in graduate school; rising to 53% 10 years after graduation
Many others pursue once-in-a-lifetime travel or volunteer opportunities
31% 67% have been involved in a startup venture
have pursued graduate degrees
average salary
$120,000 95% 97% report that they love their job
feel valued in the workplace
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10 years after graduation
CONNECT WITH US We invite you to learn more about Olin by visiting:
olin.edu/the-wire our in-house news site
olin.edu/blog/ the-olinsider featuring studentgenerated posts
olin.edu/blog/careerand-graduate-stories featuring stories about our alumni
meet.olin.edu featuring profiles of Oliners, classes and clubs
olin.edu/ admission
Take a Virtual Tour olin.edu/virtual-tour/ Follow @OlinCollege
Be an Engineer Now
EXPERIMENTATION IS IN OUR DNA We’re a startup college. We try new things, iterate and make them better. How about you?
A mission to transform Olin, ourselves and the world THE OLIN EXPERIMENT
No academic departments. No tenure. Affordable costs. A hands-on curriculum that integrates engineering with arts, humanities, social sciences and entrepreneurship. Students and their needs are at the center of learning and decision-making. Olin opened its doors in 2002.
We define being an engineer very broadly. We believe that in addition to having technical skills, students need to be innovative, put their work into context and consider how they can contribute to the good of the world. We lead first with offering a superb technical education — but where other schools’ definitions of engineering end there, ours just begins. We require and expect that students will learn arts, humanities, social sciences, design and entrepreneurship. These elements provide context for technical skills.
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At Olin, we’re committed to experimentation. That means we’re always trying out new things. Everything at Olin has an expiration date — we’re constantly creating new courses, bringing disciplines together, exploring new ways to structure learning and improving courses based on feedback. That’s why you’ll see anthropologists teaching in entrepreneurship classes, biologists and historians teaming up to offer new courses, large-scale curricular experiments, and improvements to the learning infrastructure.
meet.olin.edu
WE EXPERIMENT WITH DIFFERENT VIEWS OF THE WORLD
We believe the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHS) provide the framework for students’ education, adding insight, purpose and direction to the larger Olin experience.
Our whole curriculum is based on the idea that engineering starts with people and ends with people. AHS (pronounced “Oz”), provides our students with a vehicle for understanding people, both as users of and as creators of engineering solutions. We offer both standalone AHS courses and courses
that integrate AHS with science or engineering. These courses are meant to foster students’ development as critical and contextual thinkers, broadthinking creators, persuasive communicators, ethical practitioners, and self-reflective individuals.
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VISIT
olin.edu/ academic-life/ experience/ arts-humanities-social-sciences/
WE HAVE AN EXPANSIVE VIEW OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP Throughout the curriculum, we connect the teaching of engineering to entrepreneurship by encouraging our students to put humans and their needs at the forefront of everything they do. After all, entrepreneurship is the way innovative solutions make their way into the world, where they can make a difference.
Babson-Olin-Wellesley Collaboration
We also collaborate closely with neighboring Babson and Wellesley colleges. We call it the BOW Collaboration. This exciting and unusual partnership leverages the distinctive strengths of each of the institutions — Babson is ranked No. 1 in the country for entrepreneurship and Wellesley ranks in the top Our entrepreneurship stream 10 of the nation’s liberal arts offers students a structured colleges, according to U.S. experience to help them develop News & World Report. the mindset, the methods and the resources needed to act on This partnership better their entrepreneurial ideas and prepares our students to solve interests. the complex, interdisciplinary global grand challenges of Our introductory our time — engineering better entrepreneurship class, medicines, providing clean Products + Markets, is energy, securing cyberspace, taken by all students in the etc. Through this collaboration, second semester of their students are well-poised to first year. Working in small, address these issues from dynamic teams and using an varying perspectives and work iterative process, students across disciplines. experiment with creating value propositions and learn how to turn their entrepreneurial ideas into realities. VISIT VISIT
olin.edu/ academic-life/ curriculum/ entrepreneurship/
bow3colleges.org
What happens when the inventor of a new product is still in college? Thanks to Olin’s Entrepreneurial Engineering Capstone, students such as Max won’t be faced with the difficult decision of holding off on their idea until graduation or leaving school to pursue it. In this capstone program, select students gain professional experience by undertaking an authentic engineering project in the context of a prospective new venture. Max is working on Organizm, a computer visionbased inventory management system. Students like Max who are chosen to participate in this capstone program use their skills to solve a problem, but also go a few steps further. They work to understand the problems they’re trying to solve and the value of their solution, as well as learn about finding a market.
It really helped me navigate the whole startup space,” says Max. “We have built several prototypes, and are currently working on our first product and working on getting it alpha tested!”
meet.olin.edu
Meet Max ’20 Irving, Texas
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ENTREPRENEURIAL SPOTLIGHT
WE EXPERIMENT WITH CLASSES & ACROSS DISCIPLINES SIX MICROBES THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Six Microbes That Changed the World is a foundational biology experience that is paired with rigorous historical analysis. This new course was introduced into the curriculum to provide early learning experiences that integrate societal and scientific disciplines. More specifically, the course examines the science and historical context and impact of five genres of microbes — penicillium, E. coli, cholera, archaea and cyanobacteria — with students choosing a sixth microbe to study. The course is modeled on the long-running, retired class Stuff of History, which blended materials science with the history of technology.
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Six Microbes Teaching Team: Jean Huang, Associate Professor of Biology; Rob Martello, Professor of the History of Science & Technology
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WE EXPERIMENT BY DOING BUILD WEEK 40 students, one week, several faculty & staff Forty students returned from winter break one week early to participate in Olin’s first-ever Build Week. The Build Week “crew” guided the enthusiastic group of students, faculty and staff in a variety of campus betterment projects, reflections on Olin’s past and discussions about its future. They hoped to create an event that would empower everyone to have a voice and a role, as well as to encourage collaboration and focus on ideas and projects that would make Olin a better place. The weeklong format allowed for the extensive exploration and development of those ideas.
Sample Projects painting a mural for the dining hall fixing up dorm kitchens cleaning stockrooms & creating a marketplace updating symbols of access logos troubleshooting & fixing solar panels
olin.edu/ build-week
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We built things, but we also built community. We focused on taking care of ourselves and taking care of each other, and I’m really proud of everyone for devoting the time and care to that.” SAM ’22 WELLESLEY HILLS, MASSACHUSETTS
We show others how to experiment We are more than an incubator for innovation in engineering education on our own campus. It’s our mission to help transform engineering education, and to stimulate transformational educational experiences with, and for, other institutions. Students are an integral part of this process. From hosting a “Campus, Curriculum, Culture” walking tour for visitors to serving as a student liaison to facilitating a summer workshop for teams of educators to conceive and catalyze change in their classrooms and their institutions. More than 3,006 educators and business leaders have visited Olin to learn more. They represent more than 860 institutions.
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pages.olin.edu/ summerinstitute
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SUMMER INSTITUTE WORKSHOP
Imaginative User Design Olin Facilitators Allison ’20, Julia ’22, Mason ’22, Vicky ’20 This imaginative user design workshop was run and designed entirely by Olin students, offering a glimpse into the project experience for students in a typical Olin class. Participants had the opportunity to design and prototype a solution for a particular user group, quickly prototyped their solution, and then explained it to a group of others who helped them consider their design’s usefulness and ability to address their users’ needs.
I gained an incredibly passionate, empathetic community of fellow Olin members and international educators. The kind, supportive words I received from participants nourished my heart and reminded me how extraordinary Olin is for empowering their students to be innovative teachers.” JULIA ‘22 GL ADSTONE, NEW JERSEY
Because of the people. They make it feel like home.
[I knew the] relationships with faculty [would be] are amazing. Calling faculty by their first name is just the tip of the iceberg that is the mutual respect of the student-faculty relationships. The conversations & interactions are caring & authentic. LUCKY ’21 FULLERTON, C ALIFORNIA
NICK ’20 SCUCCA SUNNA , NEW JERSEY
I wanted to immerse myself in a college experience that can’t be found in larger universities. Olin is so unique, and I wanted to be part of its story. CASSANDRA ’21 SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA
#ICHO
I fell in love with the atmosphere of creation. MADS ’22 FORT L AUDERDALE, FLORIDA
I knew this was the place I would learn the most! NINA ’20 KEY BISCAYNE, FLORIDA
Because of the opportunity to interact closely with faculty. MARK ’21 AUBURNDALE, MA SSACHUSETTS
I wanted to be a co-creator in my own educational experience, and I can really be that here! ANNIE ’20 PORTOL A VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
Because people here have the hardest fun ever. MEG ’22 WESTBOROUGH, MASSA CHUSETTS
Because of the people I met here and because of the fact that here, you’re not just a number — you’re a person.
OSEOLIN I felt like I could make friends here... and I did! CHARLIE ’19 SHELTON, WA SHINGTON
ARGYRIS ’22 KIFISSIA , GREECE
I felt Olin College would give me four of the most interesting years of my life. LUIS ’21 MCALLEN, TEXAS
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