Heaps of Success at HEEP Event

On March 11, Sridevi Sarma, Vice Dean for Graduate Education and Lifelong Learning and Associate Professor and Hong Lan, Director of Special Projects, hosted the inaugural Hopkins Engineering Exploratory Program (HEEP) for prospective graduate students. The seven-day event brought together 23 students, including 13 from India, to view 16 curated lectures by Whiting School of Engineering (WSE) faculty.

The HEEP program is designed to give exceptional junior undergraduates from around the globe a brief introductory and immersive experience to Johns Hopkins University’s Whiting School of Engineering. It is a non-degree, non-credentialing program held on the Homewood Campus that combines a series of engineering and STEM workshops/short courses with tours of the JHU campuses, labs, day trips to tourist and historical locations, as well as workshops and panels about graduate school and careers in engineering.

“One of the most effective ways to showcase our outstanding faculty and cutting-edge research is to get prospective students on campus. Meeting with faculty and attending real lectures by them are key factors for understanding the atmosphere we can offer,” Sarma said. “Plus, it’s so much fun getting to meet in person and show them everything else Hopkins and Baltimore can offer.

Early outcomes of the event highlight that among the 23 HEEP participants, eight are seniors who had received an offer from one of the WSE Master of Science in Engineering programs. After attending, four students accepted offers to the Mechanical Engineering Master of Science program, and one student accepted an offer to the Electrical and Computer Engineering, Master of Science program. The other 15 participants were college juniors. WSE plans to host another HEEP event in September, 2023.