Industry Engagement

Our programstrongly believes in the synthesis of education and industry trends and needs.

Our faculty members bring a strong intersection between theory and practice into the network engineering program. The program’s success story is based on a tight coupling of education with hands-on design experience through its lab facilities and close partnerships with industry. Major companies comment on the relevance of our educational offering and the importance of this type of applied education.

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facebook employees present at the network engineering hackathon at CU
network engineering students participate in the Cisco hackathon at CU
facebook employees present at the network engineering hackathon at CU
facebook employees present at the network engineering hackathon at CU

CableLabs

CableLabs

"The master's program in network engineering at CU Boulder is ideal for both traditional network engineers seeking software skills as well as for software developers wanting to understand the next-generation of computer networking. With the networking industry's landscape constantly evolving, this program perfectly prepares the candidate to graduate with the latest and greatest skills most sought after in the market. The technologies taught in this program - both via theory and hands-on labs, including network automation, software-defined networking, and network virtualization and orchestration, enable graduates to start making an impact from day one.” - Senior Software Architect, Rahil Gandotra, PhD atCableLabs

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Cisco Systems

“The Network Engineering Program at CU Boulder is one of the finest programs in the country that nurtures a novice or experienced candidate’s NE skills with the next generation cloud and virtualization (NFV/SDN) technologies employed by some of the industry leaders. The program provides students with an enriching hands-on experience with a vast variety of new vendor equipment and software from some of the networking giants like Cisco and hyperscale companies. Additionally, the guidance from the industry-experienced faculty in the program deeply facilitate students’ research interests and skills that are in demand in today’s changing industry environment." - Senior Software Engineer - Data Center, Dewang Gedia, PhD

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Drizly and Uber

"What is unique about the Network Engineering program at CU Boulder is that the faculty use real-world experience combined with input from industry to prepare the next generation of engineers. Through the hands-on labs of professors Levi and Jose the students are more than prepared to enter the workforce applying cutting edge technology on day one." Chief Security Officer, Joe McManus atDrizly (Uber)

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Netflix

“The Network Engineering curriculum is very hands-on oriented, providing students with exposure to the latest networking technologies within real-world lab environments hosted either on campus at CU Boulder or remotely accessible to students who are working with advisors from industry. It’s the access to the latest technologies and hands-on nature of the Network Engineering curriculum that makes our students so well-versed on advanced network engineering principles - and why Network Engineering students are highly sought-after within the digital workforce.” - Director of Infrastructure Strategy at Netflix, CU ITP alumnus, and a faculty lecturer for Network EngineeringKevin Epperson

Network Engineering Hackathons at CU

Students enrolled in the Network Engineering program participate in industry-sponsored hackathons at CU Boulder each year.

The hackathons focus on developing creativesolutions for network configuration, management, and operations and provide the student teams with an opportunity to hone their software development skills and address ways to more effectively manage large-scale networks.

The Network Engineering industry values the practical education offered in this degree and this is demonstrated by the multiple corporate donations our lab has received over the last few years with the objective of maintaining our industry relevance and to continue to foster hands-on education, expertise, and critical thinking.

Some of the Network Engineering program’s recent hardware and software donors include the following companies:

  • Arista Networks
  • Charter/Spectrum
  • Equinix
  • Facebook/Meta
  • Juniper Networks
  • Netflix
  • Yahoo!
  • Ubiquiti Networks

logos for Arista Networks, Juniper Networks, Equinix, Netflix, Yahoo, Charter Spectrum, Ubiquiti Networks and Facebook