About

The Engineering National Graduate Institutional Name Exchange (ENGINE) was founded on May 1, 2015 by the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. ENGINE is a national consortium open to any U.S. institution offering bachelors of engineering degrees with interest in recruiting outstanding students for graduate school or other academic endeavors. Beginning May 2017, Master’s student data collection is an optional feature. New Ph.D. and Master’s engineering students are our next generation of leaders. In April 2023, ENGINE has reached the stature where it can no longer be offered as a free service.  Staffing, infrastructure, data security and database maintenance now require Annual Fees for Member Institutions.  The launch of the national consortium greatly aides in an effort to enhance and increase the volume, academic quality and diversity of more engineering graduate students and engineering leaders within the U.S.

The goal of ENGINE is to house the largest active database of junior and senior undergraduate engineering students rich in academic quality and diversity for the purposes of recruitment by other U.S. institutions. All institutions providing a list of students in compliance with the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and adhering to the member institution participation agreement are eligible to receive access to the full database of student members. The vision is inclusive of all outstanding engineering students as no institutions are prohibited from participating. Many institutions have the desire to increase their number of high achieving students (cumulative undergraduate GPA), domestic students (U.S. Citizens, Permanent Residents), underrepresented minority students (Hispanic/Latino/Mexican/Puerto Rican American, Black/African American, Native American Indian) and female students.

ENGINE was founded by Mike Nazareth. Mike has over 31 years of recruiting and admissions experience in University and college settings. He is currently the inaugural Director of Graduate Recruiting and Undergraduate Research in the Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering at the University of Florida. He is also the Director of SURF, Summer Undergraduate Research at Florida. Previously Mike was the inaugural Director of Graduate Recruiting in the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan; a position he held for more than twelve years. Mike brings a wealth of experience by initiating institutional name exchanges with more than 200 U.S. institutions. His direct influence led to enrolling the most academic and diverse Ph.D. class in College of Engineering history at both the University of Florida and the University of Michigan several years over. In 2013, Mike’s work with institutional name exchange led to recognition as the inaugural recipient of the President’s Staff Innovation Award from Emeritus President Mary Sue Coleman at the University of Michigan. An award recognizing one staff member whose innovation and ideas make the University a better place to live and work.  In 2014, Mike launched the first Southeastern Conference (SEC) Engineering Name Exchange. An exchange of more than 2,600 engineering junior/senior student names across ten SEC institutions.

The inaugural season of ENGINE collected information from more than 11,500 engineering students from 56 institutions. Since then, ENGINE has grown to include 17,000 student records spanning ~85 institutions.