MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science EECS Great Educator Awards

Great Educator Awards provide financial assistance to students in the graduate year of the five-year Master of Engineering program.

Students who wish to take advantage of this program should discuss the procedure to follow with the EECS Undergraduate Office.

Commitment to Undergraduate Study

The MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science has long considered undergraduate education to be one of its primary missions. Its faculty members have made substantial educational contributions, and have had lasting impact on their students.

New Five-Year Course of Study

The Department has recently started a new five-year course of study leading to the simultaneous awarding of two degrees: a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Engineering. This new program is designed for those who know that they will need a master's degree to have the most successful engineering career. The high value traditionally placed on undergraduate education is also placed on the Master of Engineering program.

Financial Need

By policy, MIT admits freshmen without consideration of financial need and provides up to four years of need-based support to undergraduates in good standing. Rarely does a student leave MIT for purely financial reasons. However, this policy does not apply to the graduate year of the new Master of Engineering program. Some highly qualified students may be unable to take advantage of the new program simply because of the additional expense of the fifth year.

Great Educator Awards Established

The Department has established the EECS Great Educator Awards program to assist such students. Help is given to students who have the self-confidence to take out loans to support their own education. The awards pay the interest that accrues on these loans while the students are enrolled in the Master of Engineering program.

Awards are made in the name of great EECS educators, those department faculty who have contributed especially to undergraduate education -- people like those listed below. These and other great educators are remembered fondly by those who learned from them.

Each award recipient known whom the award honors, and is given a written description of that person's career, style, teaching and research contributions, and impact on MIT and the world. That way, today's students can better appreciate the legacy left by former department faculty and see themselves as part of a continuing tradition of excellence.

Your Gift Can Make a Difference

Contributions are welcome at any time, to the EECS Great Educator Awards Fund as a whole, or in honor of specific former faculty, including living emeritus/a faculty. An endowment of $60,000 can support one such award. Smaller contributions designated for individuals are combined with others made to honor the same people.

Great Educators

To date Great Educator Awards have been established to honor the following individuals. Not all of these are fully funded as yet.

Richard B. Adler

On the Department faculty, 1950 - 1990

Edward L. Bowles

On the Department faculty, 1925 - 1952

Lan Jen Chu

On the Department faculty, 1947 - 1973

Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton

On the Department faculty, 1932 - 1968

Richard H. Frazier

On the Department faculty, 1925 - 1965

Ernst A. Guillemin

On the Department faculty, 1928 - 1966

Y. W. Lee

On the Department faculty, 1948 - 1969

William A. Martin

On the Department faculty, 1968 - 1981

Samuel J. Mason

On the Department faculty, 1949 - 1974

James R. Melcher

On the Department faculty, 1962 - 1991

Fred C. Schweppe

On the Department faculty, 1968 - 1988

In summary

Great Educator Awards . . .

• support the new EECS five-year Master of Engineering Program;
• benefit students who are without normal MIT financial aid;
• honor past MIT EECS faculty -- Great Educators;
• keep the excellence of yesterday's best teachers in a new program that helps today's best students become tomorrow's best engineers.

For further information about the Great Educator Awards program, please contact the Department:

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue
Room 38-401
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
(617) 253-4600
(617) 258-7354 [Fax]
hq@eecs.mit.edu