Growth of Student Awareness within a Discipline-Agnostic Introduction-to-Engineering Course

Gregory J. Mazzaro; Timothy Aaron Wood; Kevin Skenes

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Conference: 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Portland, Oregon
Publication Date: June 23, 2024
Start Date: June 23, 2024
End Date: July 12, 2024
Conference Session: First-Year Programs Division Technical Session 9: Student Growth & Professionalization
Tagged Division: First-Year Programs Division (FYP)
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/47519

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Paper Authors

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Gregory J. Mazzaro The Citadel orcid.org/0000-0001-5814-7425

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Dr. Mazzaro earned a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Boston University in 2004, a Master of Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 2006, and a Ph.D. from North Carolina State University in 2009. From 2009 to 2013, he worked as an Electronics Engineer for the United States Army Research Laboratory in Adelphi, Maryland. For his technical research, Dr. Mazzaro studies the unintended behaviors of radio-frequency electronics illuminated by electromagnetic waves and he develops radars for the remote detection and characterization of those electronics. In the Fall of 2013, Dr. Mazzaro joined the faculty of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at The Citadel. There, he is currently an Associate Professor and the primary instructor for Electromagnetic Fields, Communications Engineering, Interference Control in Electronics, and Antennas & Propagation.

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Timothy Aaron Wood P.E. The Citadel orcid.org/0000-0002-3926-7314

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Timothy A Wood is an Associate Professor in the Dr. Emmett I. Davis, Jr. ’50, Department of
Civil, Environmental and Construction Engineering at The Citadel. He acquired a Bachelor's in Engineering Physics Summa Cum Laude with Honors followed by Civil Engineering Master's and Doctoral degrees from Texas Tech University. His technical research focuses on structural evaluation of buried bridges and culverts. He encourages students through an infectious enthusiasm for engineering mechanics and self-directed, lifelong learning. He aims to recover the benefits of the classical model for civil engineering education through an emphasis on reading and other autodidactic practices.

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Kevin Skenes The Citadel

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Kevin Skenes is an assistant professor at The Citadel. His research interests include non-destructive evaluation, photoelasticity, manufacturing processes, and engineering education.

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Abstract

>> This paper is Complete; it is not a Work-in-Progress. >> Selecting a major strongly tied to one’s interests and talents is a challenging task for many college students. For freshmen engineering majors, deciding a particular discipline on which to focus is sometimes confusing and intimidating. Unfortunately, it is common for a student to select a discipline based on limited or inaccurate information, to have a shallow understanding of that discipline or to feel little enthusiasm towards it, and to turn away from that discipline when the difficulty of required coursework ramps up in later semesters. >> The authors of this paper want for their students to love what they do -- to be well-informed about their chosen profession and to use their enthusiasm for it as a well-spring of motivation, especially when their upper-division courses give them trouble. Towards that end, the authors have designed an Introduction to Engineering course, required of all engineering freshmen entering the authors’ institution, which presents to the students all engineering opportunities available at their school. The role of the engineer in society is defined and an overview of each discipline is presented. Since this course is delivered in the first semester, students (if they so desire) can change majors while maintaining their timeline for graduation. >> This paper presents the structure of the Introduction to Engineering course. Three sections are taught by faculty from each of three departments: Civil and Construction Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The three sections of students are a mixed population representing all engineering majors. The 15 weeks of the semester are split into three modules, and instructors move round-robin through each of the three sections. Major topics include (a) adoption of best practices for success in college and for studying engineering specifically, (b) examination of each sub-discipline within each major, and (c) cultivation of skills required to be successful as a practicing engineer. >> After each of their three modules, students were surveyed regarding their understanding of their chosen discipline, their awareness of adjacent disciplines, their confidence in their selection of a technical major, and their enthusiasm for their chosen discipline. The evolution of the student’s attitudes across the semester indicates that exposure to a range of instructor and student perspectives in the common-enrollment Intro course generates greater interdisciplinary awareness. Seeing students more knowledgably committed to their engineering discipline, the authors anticipate greater student satisfaction and retention in their majors.

Citation
Format

Mazzaro, G. J., & Wood, T. A., & Skenes, K. (2024, June), Growth of Student Awareness within a Discipline-Agnostic Introduction-to-Engineering Course Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/47519

TY - CPAPER
AB - &amp;gt;&amp;gt; This paper is Complete; it is not a Work-in-Progress.
&amp;gt;&amp;gt; Selecting a major strongly tied to one’s interests and talents is a challenging task for many college students. For freshmen engineering majors, deciding a particular discipline on which to focus is sometimes confusing and intimidating. Unfortunately, it is common for a student to select a discipline based on limited or inaccurate information, to have a shallow understanding of that discipline or to feel little enthusiasm towards it, and to turn away from that discipline when the difficulty of required coursework ramps up in later semesters.
&amp;gt;&amp;gt; The authors of this paper want for their students to love what they do -- to be well-informed about their chosen profession and to use their enthusiasm for it as a well-spring of motivation, especially when their upper-division courses give them trouble. Towards that end, the authors have designed an Introduction to Engineering course, required of all engineering freshmen entering the authors’ institution, which presents to the students all engineering opportunities available at their school. The role of the engineer in society is defined and an overview of each discipline is presented. Since this course is delivered in the first semester, students (if they so desire) can change majors while maintaining their timeline for graduation.
&amp;gt;&amp;gt; This paper presents the structure of the Introduction to Engineering course. Three sections are taught by faculty from each of three departments: Civil and Construction Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering. The three sections of students are a mixed population representing all engineering majors. The 15 weeks of the semester are split into three modules, and instructors move round-robin through each of the three sections. Major topics include (a) adoption of best practices for success in college and for studying engineering specifically, (b) examination of each sub-discipline within each major, and (c) cultivation of skills required to be successful as a practicing engineer.
&amp;gt;&amp;gt; After each of their three modules, students were surveyed regarding their understanding of their chosen discipline, their awareness of adjacent disciplines, their confidence in their selection of a technical major, and their enthusiasm for their chosen discipline. The evolution of the student’s attitudes across the semester indicates that exposure to a range of instructor and student perspectives in the common-enrollment Intro course generates greater interdisciplinary awareness. Seeing students more knowledgably committed to their engineering discipline, the authors anticipate greater student satisfaction and retention in their majors.
AU - Gregory J. Mazzaro
AU - Timothy Aaron Wood P.E.
AU - Kevin Skenes
CY - Portland, Oregon
DA - 2024/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Growth of Student Awareness within a Discipline-Agnostic Introduction-to-Engineering Course
UR - https://peer.asee.org/47519
ER -