Conference Session

FPD2 -- Highlighting First-Year Programs

Collection

2007 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Lynnane George, U.S. Air Force Academy; Robert Brown, U.S. Air Force Academy

Tagged Divisions

First-Year Programs

engineering projects.At the beginning of the semester, the students are introduced to the systems engineering designprocess and computational tools to help them explore design alternatives and communicate theirdesign solutions. They learn practical methods for designing a complicated system andestablishing criteria by which they can make good, logical decisions. The students not onlylearn engineering, they also learn teamwork, peer leadership, and time/resource management.The format of the course follows five blocks of material, each focused on a particularengineering area. Each block is followed by an exercise that gives the students an opportunityto test their new-found knowledge, such as building and launching a rocket or glider, building alaunch