Engineering Policy and Leadership Institute

Engineering students and faculty need to become more aware of public policy issues and realize that their knowledge and technical expertise can be helpful to policy decision makers.  In the long term, the goal is for more engineers to take leadership roles in industry and government and have a stronger voice in public policy development.  EPLI allows students and faculty to learn about and experience the public policy decision-making process.  These individuals will then be prepared to provide critically needed technical information to shape policy to provide the most benefit to society.

To help facilitate its goals, EPLI looks to introduce students to the policy-making process in attempt to give technical students a better understanding of how the system “works.” Furthermore, EPLI encourages students to sharpen skills that are relevant in the public policy realm including intrapersonal communication, present technical information in an understandable way for a non-technical audience, and other imperative characteristics necessary for any person operating in the field of public policy.