For William H. Marks ’12, vice president of the Harvard College Engineering Society (HCES), improvements to the ES experience are already underway.

“One thing that SEAS has done well is that it [has] begun to listen more to student wishes,” says Marks, adding that the administration has been increasingly receptive to student suggestions.

Dahleh affirms these efforts.

“We’ve partnered pretty heavily with the Harvard College Engineering Society just to get more feedback about student experience,” she says, adding that the department is also working with the Office of Career Services to help students find internships and jobs.

The implementation of lab components and the opening of a new microfluidics teaching facility are two additional developments aimed at fostering a “hands-on, industry sponsored” approach to student learning, says Dahleh.

Burke is working with Barry A. Griffin ’71, a visiting lecturer on design curriculum development, to build a turbine to power underwater sensory equipment. “It’s fantastic, because I’m already able to help the world,” Burke says.

Griffin has been actively developing hands-on projects at the undergraduate level, and in courses like ES 20: “How to Create Things and Have Them Matter” student have the opportunity to tackle real-world design challenges. Furthermore, student initiative also fuels innovative projects in engineering.

Xie works with HCES to find and advertise design projects for students. “Having an environment outside of class where you can express your creativity, design something crazy, is a very different experience than what the classes offer. That has added a different dimension to the concentration,” she says.

“I think it’s a generational thing,” adds Marks. “The seniors who ranked [ES] so low started out doing engineering at a very different time and I think that as the juniors, sophomores, and freshmen progress through the ranks, you will see the numbers rise very rapidly.”

—Staff writer Amy Guan can be reached at guan@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Radhika Jain can be reached at radhikajain@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction.

CORRECTION: FEB. 21, 2011.

The Feb. 18 article "Engineering School Sees Low Satisfaction Ratings" incorrectly identified the concentration's satisfaction numbers. In 2010, the concentration scored an average rating of 3.45. In 2002, its score was 3.11.