It’s official: University of Florida College of Engineering undergraduates are undeniably among the engineering academic elite.

UF is among the ranks of top universities and industry leaders — Harvard, MIT, ExxonMobil and Lockheed Martin to name a few — teaming up in the Sandia Labs National Institute for Nanotechnology Education coalition.

Developed in response to the significant decline in engineering students, NINE exposes students to the nanotechnology field with hands-on projects alongside top scientists in world-class facilities.

The Sandia Labs NINE Coalition isn't the only program of its kind, but it's certainly the most unique.

"I don't know of many such programs which combine many universities in a national lab for an educational mission," College of Engineering Dean Pramod Khargonekar said.

In an apprentice-like setting, students work with Sandia scientists on inventions that could be used as commercial products, as well as work with other students around the nation in similar fields.

"I wish all the time I could be an 18-year-old with these opportunities," Khargonekar said. "If I was a student, this would be one of things I would definitely do."

The NINE coalition further emphasizes UF's on-going nanotechnology research, as it is one of the only universities with a nanoscience program, the Nanoscience Institute for Medical & Engineering Technology.

With Sandia stepping in to lend its prominent research factory to students hungry for practical and hands-on research, it's a match made in engineering heaven.

"There are things at Sandia that you will never be able to do here," said Materials Science & Engineering Department Chair Kevin Jones.

UF has been affiliated with Sandia for some 15 years on the research aspect, and the first student interaction was on the undergraduate level with Students Understanding Nanotechnology, a program Jones created.

Sponsored by NINE, SUN sends freshman and sophomore engineering majors to Sandia labs to explore the nanotechnology field as an effort to address UF's 50 percent attrition rate in engineering students in the first two years.

Beginning engineering majors are subjected to some of the most notoriously difficult undergraduate classes at UF, Jones said. They don't see the relation between physics and calculus to engineering.

SUN puts students in hands-on labs to "bind that connection and convince them this is an exciting field to be in," Jones said.

For Jones, it's the hands-on experience and collaborative work with field professionals that solidified his career choice.

"The only reason why I stayed in engineering is because I got a job in lab."