Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge Department of Engineering is the largest department at the University of Cambridge. The Department is known for collaborating with other disciplines, institutions, companies, and entrepreneurs and for adopting an integrated approach to research and teaching. The main site is situated at Trumpington Street, to the south of the city center of Cambridge. The Department is Cambridge's primary center for engineering teaching and research activities. The department is currently headed by Professor Colm Durkan.

In 1782, the Reverend Richard Jackson of Torrington, a former fellow of Trinity College, died, leaving a substantial portion of his estate to endow a Professorship of Natural Experimental Philosophy. This became the forerunner to the Professorship of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics, first held in 1875 by James Stuart. The first engineering workshop at Cambridge was constructed in 1878 in a wooden hut measuring fifty by twenty feet. The department now has several sites around Cambridge:

The main buildings are located at Trumpington Street and Fen Causeway on the Scroope House site, where most of the undergraduate teaching in the Engineering Tripos is carried out. The Baker Building was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, on November 13, 1952. Various sections that could not easily be accommodated on the main site have moved to the university's West Cambridge site, including the Whittle Laboratory (a turbomachinery laboratory founded by Sir John Horlock in 1973), the Geotechnical Centrifuge Laboratory, the Microelectronics Research Centre (1992), the Electrical Engineering Division Building, and the Institute for Manufacturing (IfM). A few of the smaller buildings on the Old Addenbrooke's Site, in Trumpington Street opposite the Scroope House Site, have been used by the Department from time to time. Currently, the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership is in the end building of that site, 1 Trumpington Street, having expanded and moved there under its previous name of Cambridge Programme for Industry in 1991. In 2016, the construction of the James Dyson Building was completed in front of the Baker Building, providing additional office space and seminar/meeting rooms for use by the Department. Over the course of the next 10 years, the Department plans to consolidate the Department of Engineering entirely on the West Cambridge site.

Cambridge University Eco Racing, a student run team which designs builds and races solar electric vehicles. Innocent Drinks, best known for the Innocent Smoothie brand. Cambridge Consultants, an international technology development and consultancy company. Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company, first manufacturer of the scanning electron microscope.

The Department of Engineering currently has about 190 faculty and PI status researchers, 300 postdoctoral researchers, and 850 graduate students. Post graduate education consists of both taught courses and research degrees (PhD, MPhil, and MRes). The majority of research students are enrolled in PhD programs while around 10 percent follow the one year MPhil (research) program. The Department has a number of Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Centres for Doctoral Training (CDTs), which follow a 1 plus 3 year model where a one year MRes course is followed by a three year PhD. Full funding for four years is provided through these centres. In addition to the CDTs, the Department has a limited number of EPSRC PhD studentships available for both British and EU students.