Undergraduate Degree Programs and Minors

Now in its second century of existence, the UK College of Engineering is the largest and highest ranked engineering college in the state. With our small class size and wide-ranging opportunities for student involvement and leadership, we are ready to let you make your future in engineering.

More detailed information about curriculum and specialization opportunities can be found by selecting the discipline of interest.

Biosystems Engineering

Biosystems engineering provides an essential link between the biological sciences and the engineering profession. This linkage is necessary for the development of production and processing systems involving biological materials that preserve our natural resource base. Students have the latitude to develop an area of specialization relating to environmental engineering, biotechnology, food processing, machine systems, or controlled environment engineering. The curriculum is also ideal preparation for those students wanting to pursue a graduate or professional degree in biomedical engineering or veterinary medicine through the pre-biomedical and pre-veterinary medicine options.

Chemical Engineering

The study of chemical engineering requires a foundation in mathematics, chemistry, and physics. Fundamental principles related to the transformations of matter and energy are developed in areas such as thermodynamics, mass transfer, reactor design, and chemical process design. Undergraduate elective options are available in polymers and environmental protection. A program is also available to fulfill premedical and predental requirements simultaneously with requirements for the B.S. in Chemical Engineering.

Civil Engineering

The student of civil engineering has a broad field of study to provide a strong foundation for entry into the profession or graduate school. Major areas include construction engineering, environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, materials engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, and water resources engineering.

Computer Engineering

Computer engineering involves modeling, design, implementation, testing, evaluation and integration of computer hardware and software to create computing systems. Computer engineers use both hardware concepts from electrical engineering and system software concepts from computer science. Graduates will be well prepared to work in areas such as digital logic design, computer organization/architecture and design, algorithm design and analysis, embedded systems, compilers, and operating systems. Elective options in the curriculum offer preparation in software engineering, databases, dependable systems, networking and communications, VLSI, graphics, image processing, visualization, artificial intelligence, and control systems. The program is offered through a partnership between the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Department of Computer Science.

Computer Science

The Computer Science program includes courses dealing with the design, implementation, analysis, and software-engineering issues related to algorithms and computer programs. A foundation in continuous and discrete mathematics is used to study numerical problems and to analyze algorithms. Through required and elective courses students are exposed to the fundamentals of computing theory and algorithms, programming languages, language translation and compiling, graphics, scientific computing, artificial intelligence, networks, databases, and operating systems.

Electrical Engineering

The undergraduate electrical engineering degree program seeks to produce graduates who are trained in the theory and practice of electrical and computer engineering and are well prepared to handle the professional and leadership challenges of their careers. The program allows students to specialize in high performance and embedded computing, microelectronics and nanotechnology, power and energy, signal processing and communications, high frequency circuits and fields, and control systems, among others.

Materials Engineering

The materials engineer is responsible for the preparation, fabrication, selection, use, and reuse of existing materials, and for the development of new and improved materials. The professional in this field is often called on to consider metals, ceramics and polymers. The engineer considers chemical, electronic, magnetic, optical, and mechanical properties of materials.

Mechanical Engineering

The mechanical engineer’s training is the broadest among the several fields of engineering. The mechanical engineer uses the techniques of mathematics combined with a specialized knowledge of the thermal and energy sciences, solid and fluid mechanics, and the properties of materials. This information is supplemented by an understanding of manufacturing processes, the design and control of systems, and the economics of the technological community.

Mining Engineering

Mining engineering requires a broad knowledge of sciences and other fields of engineering in its practice after graduation. The curriculum below meets the requirements for a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering, provided the student satisfies the graduation requirements of the College of Engineering.