Mission

Utree, which stands for Undergraduate Teaching and Research Experiences in Engineering, is a group of undergraduate engineering scholars who excel in their presentation skills. This group has the mission of fostering the professional skills not only of undergraduates in the College of Engineering at Penn State, but also of engineers in academia and professional settings.

To achieve this mission, Utree runs a speaking contest, which is sponsored by the Leonhard Center, and is discussed to the right. In addition, Utree teaches class periods and workshops. This teaching not only occurs in the College of Engineering at Penn State, but has occurred at a number of institutions including Northeastern University, Penn State Hershey, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

History

To raise the level of presentations given by engineering undergraduates, the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education has initiated a contest in which engineering students from Penn State's College of Engineering vie to give the best 10-minute presentation that presents an engineering solution to a societal problem.

The contest draws from the hundreds of Penn State engineering students who take a semester course on effective speaking: Effective Speaking for Engineers (CAS 100A for Engineers). For more information, please visit the contest homepage.