Engineering Major
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About the Major
Engineers can be of profound service to humanity as they identify, navigate and work toward finding solutions for complex problems affecting our world. Engineers can work in the fields of energy, space exploration, environmental design, product manufacturing, construction and more.
Jobs in Engineering
- Biomedical engineer
- Computer engineer
- Design engineer (structural, geotechnical, transportation, coastal)
- Environmental engineer
- Mechanical engineer
Past Elon Engineering Internships
- AKG of America Inc.
- Carolina Biological Supply Company
- Precor
- Quadridox Inc.
- Wastequip LLC
Related Majors
Engineering grad’s mission: To use degree to better people’s lives
Samantha Dominguez, a 2022 graduate of Elon, remembers the exact moment she decided to become a biomedical engineer.
She’d felt drawn to the medical field already — many of her relatives are doctors and nurses — but didn’t feel a drive to follow in their footsteps. She wondered if being a doctor or nurse was all there was to do in the medical field.
There are just so many things I could do in people’s lives to help make a difference.
Then came the day her Dallas, Texas, high school biomedical science class viewed a recording of a video-assisted robotic thoracoscopic surgery. Watching that tiny robot make incisions in a patient’s chest and perform surgery remotely was like seeing her future in fast-forward.
“It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen in my entire life,” Dominguez said. “The idea of it is incredible: That a doctor could be halfway around the world but performing surgery on someone. And people design those machines. I thought, ‘Wow, I could do that!’ It set me on the track.”
That track led her to Elon University’s engineering program. During Dominguez’s senior year in high school, Elon announced it would begin offering a four-year engineering degree.
“I got an email from Elon about the four-year engineering degree with a biomedical concentration. I said: This is it. This is the sign. I need to go here,” said Dominguez, who entered Elon in 2018.
Dominguez’s mission to use engineering to save and improve lives only got stronger at Elon.
“Being a biomedical engineer, I can do medical research,” Dominguez said. “I can be the one who 3D prints a heart for someone to use as a transplant. The things I could do vary so much: Cancer research, or work on antiviral drugs, or making exoskeletons for people to be able to walk,” Dominguez said. “Of all those things, it will always have a positive impact on somebody’s life and their health. There are just so many things I could do in people’s lives to help make a difference.”
Dominguez is currently teaching English in the Czech Republic through the Fulbright program. She expects her experience will put her ability to collaborate and exchange ideas to the test on a global scale.
Did You Know?
- Elon offers two pathways: an engineering degree from Elon or the dual-degree engineering program, where a student participates in the Elon program for three years and then transfers to another engineering institution, typically for two more years.
- For the engineering degree from Elon, students can choose a concentration in biomedical engineering, computer engineering, environmental engineering or mechanical engineering, or they can develop their own concentration.
- Elon’s new Founders Hall, which opened in 2022, was designed to enable engineering students to transform bold ideas into prototypes. It includes work spaces for design, advanced prototyping, prefabrication, mechatronics and virtual reality.