Cal Poly Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies

The Liberal Arts and Engineering Studies (LAES) curriculum allows students to participate in multi-disciplinary development teams that work on real-world, national and international technology and culture projects. To foster high-level leadership and communication skills, LAES student projects are always run in collaboration with other Cal Poly majors from Engineering, Liberal Arts, Architecture, and the Sciences, while also working one-one-one with our program’s commercial clients and partners from California and overseas. To further prepare students for the global marketplace and provide them with intercultural communication skills, the program strongly encourages students to spend at least one quarter studying or working abroad. Additionally, many of the projects that LAES students work on during the year are directly connected to larger commercial and academic endeavors throughout Asia, Europe, and the South Pacific. The LAES degree, with its emphasis on project-based learning, leadership development, and commercial partnership, provides students with hands-on training and in-depth study that prepares them for a wide range of innovative technical careers and entrepreneurship in the arts, design, management, production, and community support. Since the program began in 2007, LAES graduates have been highly successful in obtaining technical, design, and management careers in companies such as Warner Brothers Studios, Disney, Tesla, Apple, DTS, Universal Studios, Microsoft, as well as a wide range of progressive high-tech and creative design companies throughout the world. The LAES degree has also served as the foundation for a number of our graduates who are currently pursuing graduate studies in well-respected MA, MS and PhD programs in Psychology, Engineering, Education, and Business.