Undergraduate students earn a Bachelor of Science in Engineering while graduate students can receive a Master of Science or doctoral degree in engineering. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports that engineering colleges awarded 82,072 bachelor's degrees, 32,162 master's degrees and 8,123 doctoral degrees in engineering in 2007. The 2007 undergraduate degrees in engineering comprised about five percent of all undergraduate degrees awarded that year. These students earn degrees in a variety of fields, ranging from chemical and electrical engineering to agricultural and biotechnology. Students in 2007 made mechanical engineering the most popularly pursued field of engineering study in the United States. More than 16,000 prospective engineers graduated in this field of study.
Professors at many engineering colleges contribute to the technology in their fields by inventing new devices, tools and applications. Corporations form partnerships with the engineering colleges and provide money, materials and research facilities for these new technologies. For instance, in 2010, Verizon gave $160,000 to support sustainability projects at Cornell University. In 2009, University of California Merced Biomedical engineering professor Michelle Khine invented a new type of chip for biomedical applications. Students at many engineering colleges participate in or assist their professors with their research. For example, at the University of Maryland's College of Engineering, Professor Carol Espy-Wilson teamed up with graduate student Srikanth Vishnubhotla to invent a new algorithm for eliminating background noise during cell phone transmissions. Engineering students also compete in intra-college and inter-college competitions, such as the Collegiate Inventors Competition.
Engineering colleges also produce new findings and discoveries in theoretical aspects of engineering that do not lead directly to new technologies or inventions. Research may include studying new engineering methods, researching the properties or applications of new or potential materials and theoretical work in mathematics and physics. This research could potentially provide the foundation for new technologies and inventions. Many colleges, such as Texas A&M University, publish journals that feature the latest breakthroughs and theoretical advances in the field, in this case, the journal "Agricultural Engineering International." In these journals, professors and scientists at engineering colleges submit their findings to disseminate new information and to participate in the process of "peer review." This process encourages other engineering professors, scientists and students to replicate and verify the results achieved by a single study or experiment.
Some engineering colleges enter into contractual relationships with their professors and students that stipulate that the college owns the rights to any inventions or findings produced in the college's facilities. Other colleges award the patent to the professor or student that made the invention. The engineering college may then choose to file a patent with the U.S. Office of Patents. A patent protects the college's investment in new research and new technologies by giving the patent holder exclusive use and licensing rights to the new technology. Many of these patents help professors at engineering colleges create startup companies that can sell or license the protected invention or technology. For instance, in 2010, Purdue University reported that its professors received 47 patents and formed 11 startup companies.