In September 1974, the Polytechnic Institute of New York (formerly the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn) offered undergraduate degree programs for the first time at its Long Island campus in Aerospace, Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering. This paper describes the Freshman General Engineering Lab, GE 103, the first in a sequence of new undergraduate engineering laboratories that has been developed to support these new programs. GE 103 is a two-credit, four hours per week, laboratory required for all Freshman during their second semester. The course is designed with a three-fold purpose: 1) acquaint the incoming students with representative experiments and instrumentation in the various aforementioned engineering disciplines, 2) include experiments which illustrate, where possible, the application of theory taught in the first year physics lectures, and 3) coordinate the freshman computer course with this laboratory so that assigned computer problems are related to experiments performed. With these objectives in mind, GE 103 has been designed to function as an introductory engineering-physics laboratory. In this paper we describe how we implemented these goals and report the students' reactions to the course.

A Freshman Engineering Laboratory

The Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University offers design-focused courses for freshman and senior engineering students. The senior-level courses constitute the curriculum’s capstone design experience. Seniors work in teams of four to five on a design project suggested by industry clients. Many of these same projects are used in the freshmanlevel course. These projects are used to introduce freshmen and lower-division transfer students to the engineering design process and to illustrate job possibilities available to program graduates. A unique aspect of the freshman and senior design courses, and the focus of this paper, is the inclusion of seniors in the freshman design teams. These seniors assume the role of “senior leader” and serve as managers and mentors. As managers, senior leaders answer questions that the freshmen may have about their design projects or the design process. Senior leaders also facilitate group discussions and act as mediators during times of team turbulence. Finally, senior leaders provide a weekly performance evaluation for each of their freshman team members. Beyond their management responsibilities, many senior leaders provide mentoring to the freshmen in their teams. Senior leaders provide freshmen with information about instructors, summer internship opportunities, departmental laboratory and computer resources, and student clubs, among other topics. Placement of senior leaders in freshman design teams yields numerous benefits. Seniors get an opportunity to obtain management experience before graduation. Freshmen get an opportunity to meet others in their major and to receive much greater mentoring than can be provided through traditional instructor/student contact. This paper describes the process through which senior/freshman teaming is achieved in these courses. In addition, the paper explores freshman, senior, and instructor reactions to the program.

Edward A. Hiler

Papers

A Freshman-Senior Creative Engineering Design Course.