About Engineering

Our Values

The Vanderbilt University School of Engineering has four foundational values: (1) our people, (2) our educational mission, (3) our diversity and inclusion, and (4) our impactful research.

• We value our people. 

The people who comprise the Vanderbilt University School of Engineering are our greatest asset. We excel because of our undergraduate students, our graduate students, our postdoctoral scholars, our staff, our faculty, and our alumni. We demonstrate the value of our people and the value we all place on excellence by creating a culture of collaboration and shared accountability that makes the School of Engineering an exceptional place to learn and work.

• We value our educational mission.

Our graduates are the future leaders, innovators, researchers, educators, and professionals who will contribute to global progress. We produce principled and ethical alumni whose career trajectories leverage their Vanderbilt experience to offer opportunities for professional growth and impact. We demonstrate the value of our educational mission by developing and delivering high-quality curricula in multiple engineering disciplines, by ensuring accreditation of our programs, by providing opportunities that engage our students beyond the classroom, by connecting with our students through advising and mentoring, and by building lifelong engagement with our alumni.

• We value diversity and inclusion.

Our people are committed to and manifest a welcoming, diverse, and inclusive culture that showcases respect, collegiality, and intellectual freedom. We recognize that diversity is a driver for innovative and creative solutions that benefit our society through engineering. We demonstrate the value of diversity and inclusion through our educational practice, our workplace culture, our hiring processes, and our engagement with the community.

• We value impactful research.

Our people impact the Nashville community, the state of Tennessee, the United States of America, and the global community through our world-class research enterprise. We focus on grand engineering challenges that leverage our multidisciplinary and collaborative culture. We demonstrate the value of impactful research through our investment in collaborative centers and institutes, facilities, and technology transfer. Such investment creates a portfolio of contributions spanning the range from the discoveries of basic research to the solutions of applied research.

We are committed to continual self-assessment of our attainment of these values.