Engineering students who have achieved junior status and earned a UI cumulative GPA of 3.33 or higher are eligible to apply to the Engineering Honors Program.
Students who complete the requirements are recognized at graduation with a gold cord.
Honors in Engineering is documented on a student's official transcript and diploma separately from University Honors designations.
Forms
Apply for admission to the Engineering Honors Program during your junior or senior year. It must be submitted by the final day of early registration in the semester before enrolling in the Engineering Honors seminar.
Submit a verification form after completing the written report (thesis). It requires several signatures and is due by 4:30 pm on the Friday before the final week of classes in the semester of graduation.
Requirements
- Complete all requirements for the Bachelor of Science degree with a minimum UI cumulative grade-point average of 3.33 or a B+ average.
- Earn at least 30 semester hours of college credit toward the engineering degree at The University of Iowa. Hours earned from enrollment in independent study for the honors project cannot count toward the semester hours required for a BSE degree.
- Successfully complete the Engineering Honors Seminar (ENGR:4000), typically taken in a student's junior or senior year. The Engineering Honors Seminar is a one-credit hour weekly meeting of students completing honors projects. The seminar is structured to provide students support in communicating about their research in various formats from writing to oral presentations. Students are granted special permission to enroll in the seminar upon final approval of their application.
- Demonstrate exceptional accomplishment by completing an approved honors project under the supervision of a faculty member. (Examples include: research; directed independent study; development of a computer-assisted tutorial for a course; creation of a demonstration experiment or a new experiment for an engineering course; or other departmentally approved enrichment or extracurricular activity)
- Complete a written report (thesis) on the finished honors project.
- Present the Engineering Honors project at the Research Open House hosted by the College of Engineering each spring semester.
- Submit the Verification of Completion of Honors Requirements form to the College of Engineering, Student Development Center, 3612 Seamans Center. The Honors Project Faculty Mentor, Departmental Honors Advisor, and Associate Dean for Academic Programs need to sign the form to verify completion of the written report (thesis). A final copy of the written report (thesis) is due by 4:30 PM on the Friday before the final week of classes during the semester of graduation.
Collaborative Theses
Departments may permit students to collaborate on a single honors thesis or project. With approval from departmental honors advisor(s) and faculty mentor(s), these collaborations may be interdisciplinary. At the outset, a collaboration plan should be approved by the relevant advisor(s) and mentor(s). In the end, individual contributions must be delineated in ways acceptable to the advisor(s) and mentor(s). A written application for approval of the written report (thesis) or project must specify and justify the collaboration, stating clearly the contributions of each student. This application must be signed by the advisor(s) and mentor(s), then filed with the Honors Program when the thesis is submitted. When advance warning has been provided to prospectively unsatisfactory contributors, advisor(s) and mentor(s) may approve some contributions but not others for the same project. With this in mind, mentor(s) must monitor progress closely as collaborative projects proceed.
Departmental Honors Advisors
Biomedical Engineering - Avrama Blackwell
Chemical Engineering - David Rethwisch
Civil and Environmental Engineering - Corey Markfort
Electrical and Computer Engineering - Xiaodong Wu
Industrial Engineering - Geb Thomas
Mechanical Engineering - Justin Garvin