Polygon began in the early 1920s and is still alive today. This organization is an engineering student council as well as an event-planning unit for events such as the Pre-Engineering Bash, offering parents, freshman, pre-engineering and transfer engineering students the opportunity to meet and to get acquainted with the engineering campus and major; the Spring Advising Fair, an event that provides pre-engineering students with information about what classes to take before they begin mandatory advising; Battle of the Bands, an entertainment-based event offering students a chance to sit back, relax, eat and listen to a live music competition; the All-Campus Party, an event that helps students celebrate spring and the end of the semester; and various other outreach, diversity and engineering-based activities.

In order to make this organization different from the engineering student councils at other schools, the founding fathers decided to give it the unique name of Polygon (which by definition means many faces or many sides) as a way to "exemplify the many faces of the engineering campus, its organizations, and the university." In the earlier days of its existence, when engineering majors were a larger percentage of the UW student body, Polygon planned events for the whole campus. Now, as a member of the National Association of Engineering Student Councils (NAESC), Polygon coordinates events chiefly oriented toward uniting the College of Engineering and its students.

Polygon is set up like a student government, so there are council elections and meetings every month in which voting and council issues are raised. The mission statement of Polygon is "to foster cooperation and communication among students, student organizations, the College of Engineering administration, and industry." Polygon proposes to be more than just a student government. By planning philanthropic and entertaining events, the members of Polygon hope to meet and fulfill the needs of engineering students every semester.