$25M endowment to advance experiential learning in Duffield Engineering

A new $25 million endowment dedicated to advancing experiential learning will provide long-term support to the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering programs that provide undergraduates with opportunities to participate on student project teams, join research labs, develop and evaluate innovative technologies, and benefit from other hands-on learning activities.

This announcement marks the college's first public detailing of how it intends to use some of the record-setting $371.5 million gift recently received from David Duffield '62, MBA '64.

"The creation of an endowment that provides stable, robust levels of support for experiential learning in all of its forms has been a high priority for our college for many years," said Lynden Archer, the Joseph Silbert Dean of Engineering. "This endowment recognizes just how central experiential learning is to a Duffield Engineering education. It also signals our intention to continually invest in developing new frameworks that facilitate learning for future students."

Initially, money from the experiential learning endowment will be used to support Duffield Engineering's Student Project Teams, learning initiatives led by its Office of Inclusive Excellence,student programming in its Office of External Collaboration and Innovationand innovative Learning Studiomodels under development in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

"Our Learning Studios have transformed our curriculum, immersing our students with real engineering systems, creating an engaging and exciting learning environment that meaningfully enhances students' educational experience and real-world preparedness," said Brian Kirby, who has spearheaded the development of the learning studios in the Sibley School, where he serves as the Meinig Family Professor of Engineering. "We are excited to build on our existing learning studios and expand this endeavor to help colleagues throughout Duffield Engineering explore and implement this approach to experiential learning."

Cornell Duffield Engineering currently supports 36 student project teams that engage in a variety of activities, such as building competitive rockets and race cars, designing new biomedical devices and installing innovative water treatment technologies in communities around the globe. The teams are led and run by undergraduates, providing them with unique opportunities to collaborate with teammates from across Cornell and hone their leadership and professional skills while earning academic credit.

"It's just an insane positive impact," said Natalie Dowd '25, who led the Baja Racing team to a string of victories in her senior year and now works as a mechanical engineer at SpaceX. "What we always tell the freshmen when we recruit them is, this is the kind of thing where the more you put into it, the more you'll get out of it. We put in a ton of time, and we've gotten exponentially more out of it."

The college's Office of Inclusive Excellence provides multiple opportunities for experiential learning. Their offerings include coordinating undergraduate research opportunities, in which students work alongside professional researchers; the office also supports peer educators and tutors, creating skilled and experienced groups of engineering leaders.

Cornell Duffield Engineering's Office of External Collaboration and Innovation was recently formed, in part, to provide cutting-edge student experiences and programming centered on innovation, commercialization and entrepreneurship. For example, their Technology Commercialization Innovation Competition, launched in 2025, provides entrepreneurial Cornell Duffield Engineering students hands-on experience in assessing business opportunities stemming from cutting-edge faculty research.

"Experiential learning comes in many flavors, and we are continuing to develop new opportunities throughout our college," said Miranda Swanson, associate dean for student services. "As responsible stewards of this incredible gift from Dave Duffield, our intent is to remain agile and focus our resources for impact. We will always be innovating and evaluating how we can most effectively educate the engineers of tomorrow."

Reeve Hamilton is assistant dean of marketing and communications for Duffield Engineering.