Olin College of Engineering

06/17/2026

From oxybenzone in sunscreen that kills coral reefs to polylactic acid plastic scraps from 3D printing, our world is full of chemical compounds that can be pollutants, persistent wastes, or underutilized resources waiting to be transformed into something useful.

In Olin’s “Microbial Diversity” course, students spend an entire semester in the lab thinking through challenges like these by working with microbes that can degrade or convert unwanted compounds. Then, they apply entrepreneurial thinking to consider how their scientific discoveries could be translated into sustainable, marketable products and services.

Taught by Jean Huang, associate professor of biology at Olin, “Microbial Diversity” is part advanced biology course and part venture creation course, developed with participation from faculty and staff at Olin with expertise in entrepreneurship.

Learn more: https://www.olin.edu/articles/story-microbes-markets-microbial-diversity-course-explores-intersection-science-and/

STORY: From Microbes to Markets: “Microbial Diversity” Course Explores Intersection of Science and Entrepreneurship Engineering for impact Leading transformation Story Faculty Student June 16, 2026 From oxybenzone in sunscreen that kills coral reefs to polylactic acid plastic scraps from 3D prin...

06/15/2026

Olin Spring Expo pics. 🛠️🚀🤖 (May 2026)

Expo is a campus-wide opportunity for students to display and explain the work they completed over the past year (from passionate pursuits to independent projects, to research, and beyond)!

06/10/2026

A group of Oliners put their engineering skills and passion for positive change to work by building a 14-foot, eight-armed autonomous drone called OCTAL designed to extinguish wildfires before they grow out of control. The OCTAL Fire project, led by Ian Walsh '26, came about after a family friend’s house burned down in 2025 during the Palisades wildfire in California.

STORY: Team of Olin Students Builds 14-Foot, Flying, Fire-Fighting Robot Engineering for impact Leading transformation Story Student June 5, 2026 A group of Oliners put their engineering skills and passion for positive change to work by building a 14-foot, eight-armed autonomous drone called OCTAL d...

06/08/2026

Big news in the Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) space - and Oliners are helping drive it forward. 🎯

Generalist, the robotics engineering co-founded by Andrew Barry ’10, has announced $400 million in new funding, bringing its total raised to more than half a billion dollars. The milestone also highlights two fellow Olin alumni: Ellen Chisa ’10, a partner at Boldstart Ventures, which participated in the round, and Evan Morikawa ’11, who is part of the team at Generalist.

It's exciting to see Olin alumni contributing to the future of and AI from so many different angles - as founders, investors, and engineers!

And check out our 2022 web profile of Andy, "From the Robotics Lab to the Wet Lab: https://www.olin.edu/articles/story-robotics-lab-wet-lab

The company raised $400 million in a funding round led by Radical Ventures

06/06/2026

THE TOP 10 MOST COMPETITIVE COLLEGES IN THE U.S. - Harvard claimed the top spot for most competitive school with a score of 10, and just behind it is, “Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, a small but fiercely innovative institution in Massachusetts. With an impressive score of 9.90, Olin earned their place. This school is known for serving engineers who thrive on solving complex problems and building real‑world solutions.” 💯🚀🤖

Read more: https://poetsandquantsforundergrads.com/news/the-most-competitive-colleges-in-america/

A look at schools that require the most to get accepted

06/05/2026

NEWS: Olin College of Engineering and Kyiv School of Economics have been shortlisted as a finalist for the 2026 PIEoneer Awards Partnership of the Year, sponsored by The PIE. 💥 🤝 🎉

In 2025, the two institutions announced a multi-year intensive partnership to support the launch of a new undergraduate program in Ukraine. Since then, faculty, staff and students from both colleges have worked to co-create a new-model undergraduate engineering program focused on human flourishing in rebuilding Ukraine’s future.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony, described as the ‘Oscars of international education,’ on Friday, September 4, 2026 at London's Guildhall.

🌍 Read more: https://www.olin.edu/articles/story-olin-college-and-kyiv-school-economics-are-shortlisted-pieoneer-awards-partnership

06/01/2026

Further evidence of the innovation happening on Olin’s (small but mighty) campus: The Olin College Robotics team has won the 2026 Excellence in Drone Applications Award in the fourth annual Challenge Awards! 💥

The Olin Ag-Robotics team designed and built their autonomous drone system, HydroFleet, to quantify soil moisture across a field for irrigation planning. The judges called Olin’s submission “the most engineering-mature project they reviewed.”

Congrats, everyone!

Read more about this news on Olin.edu (link in Story and comments).

05/28/2026

Further evidence of the innovation happening on Olin's (small but mighty) campus: 💥 The Olin College Robotics team has won the 2026 Excellence in Drone Applications Award in the fourth annual Farm Robotics Challenge Awards!

The Olin team designed and built their autonomous drone system, HydroFleet, to quantify soil moisture across a field for irrigation planning. The judges called Olin's submission “the most engineering-mature project they reviewed.”

Check out the web news to learn more and to see their video.

STORY: Olin HydroFleet Wins Farm Robotics Challenge Drone Award Engineering for impact Leading transformation Living the experiment Story Faculty Student May 26, 2026 The team from Olin College— who won the Grand Prize for their robot in 2024— took home the 2026 award for Excellence in Drone App...

05/27/2026

You don’t know what you got until it’s gone…but maybe, it’s never gone. ✨💙🎓