Majors & Minors
Be Blown Away by the Opportunities
Duke is chock-full of choices—including 6 engineering majors and 3 engineering minors.
Learn about tissue engineering, deploy AI, explore mechatronics and more. And that’s just the beginning.
As an engineering student, you can explore all of Duke—including dozens of horizon-expanding options within the humanities, arts and social sciences.
Majors
Picking a major is a big decision.
But making it doesn’t close out options, it widens the horizon. Selecting a major is picking a road from which a huge number of multidisciplinary paths branch off.
During the summer after First Year, you’ll declare your major. As you move down that road, you’ll encounter options to layer on minors and certificates, and perhaps even a second major.
Biomedical Engineering
Take on societally critical challenges in biology and health care, including the design of medical technology.
Study Areas Include
- Imaging and instrumentation
- Tissue engineering
- Double-major options with civil, environmental, electrical and computer, mechanical, and computer science
Civil Engineering
Lead the Fifth Industrial Revolution—designing solutions aimed at broadly-shared well-being, for people and the planet.
Study Areas Include
- Structural engineering and mechanics
- Environmental engineering and water resources
- Double-major option with biomedical engineering
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Integrate computing and electronic knowledge with design skill to create new devices and software.
Study Areas Include
- Computer engineering and digital systems
- Solid-state devices and integrated circuits
- Double-major option with biomedical engineering
Environmental Engineering
Develop systems and structures that restore and protect the planet’s air, water and soil.
Study Areas Include
- Water resources engineering
- Biotechnology and bioremediation
- Double-major option with biomedical engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Invent machines that improve lives, in fields as varied as health care, manufacturing, energy and transportation.
Study Areas Include
- Mechatronics
- Mechanical design
- Double-major option with biomedical engineering
Accreditation
Each of Duke’s department-based engineering majors is accredited by the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET.
Interdisciplinary Option – IDEAS
Take a deep exploration of category-crossing topics that are important to you. Through IDEAS, you start with a curricular template and then design your own customized major.
Or, you can select a pre-approved template, such as our IDEAS major in Risk, Data & Financial Engineering.
IDEAS curricula are not specifically accredited by ABET, but do satisfy the national general engineering accreditation criteria.
IDEAS Topics Have Included
- Materials science
- Biochemical engineering
- Ocean engineering
Minors
A minor is a sequence of courses focused on a discipline. There are three engineering minors and 50 more across Duke.
Electrical & Computer Engineering
Enhance your engineering major with a minor in the digital technologies that are increasingly embedded in machines and devices.
Energy Engineering
Explore renewable energy technologies while you prepare for a career designing solutions to challenges in generation, transmission and storage.
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
Build a solid foundation of the theory behind—and the possible applications of—AI technologies.
Duke’s Curricula for the Curious
There’s no wrong way to navigate the Duke academic experience.