Wouldn’t you like to shape the future instead of having it just happen to you? Did you know that almost everything made by people took the ideas and work of engineers? Just look around at the things that make your life interesting, comfortable, and fun. The dishes and silverware you eat with, television sets, cars, video games, the bridges you cross on highways, airplanes, ships, and spacecraft—even make-up— all take the work of engineers.

Engineers are the people who make things work, who imagine, design, and create. There are many kinds of engineers: Aerospace engineers make flight possible—to another city or all the way to the planets in our solar system. Agricultural engineers help feed our country by making plants and animals grow bigger and stronger. Civil engineers design and construct highways, bridges, and tunnels, even roller coasters. Electrical engineers tame the force that gives us light, heat, and power. Mechanical engineers build machines—from toys that move to the most advanced robots and racing cars. There are chemical engineers who develop a wide range of products, and even lawyers and doctors who specialize as engineers in their field.

Engineers are also inventors, developers of new products and ways of doing business. They design cities and towns. The entire communications industry—telephones, radios, television, satellites, and computers—owes its existence to engineering.

To learn more about engineering and manufacturing, visit the Alliance for Innovative Manufacturing at Stanford University.

Here is a list of major college engineering programs. Check with colleges you are considering to see if they offer a program that fits your interests.

Aerospace Engineering

Agricultural Engineering

Architectural Engineering

Bioengineering/Biomedical Engineering

Chemical Engineering

Civil Engineering

Computer/Software Engineering

Electrical Engineering

Environmental Engineering

Industrial Engineering

Manufacturing Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

Metallurgy and Materials Engineering

Mineral and Mining Engineering

Nuclear Engineering

Ocean Engineering

Transportation Engineering