© NCSU Student Media 2010
Taylor Russell, freshman in aerospace engineering, adjusts a component of his E101 freshman design project. Photo by Luis Zapata
Engineering naturally tends to get a wrap as a college that bogs students down in technical subjects, like advanced math and physics, which can lead to many late nights at D.H. Hill with too much caffeine. However, the largest college on campus is coming together all day Tuesday to focus on a broader picture than just the sum of its parts—design.
For the past eleven years, the College of Engineering has hosted Freshman Engineering Design Day, an all day program devoted to the presentation of various design projects that all 1350 first-year engineering student have worked on for the past few weeks.
“The event itself is a way for students to display and compete with their design projects,” Hailey Queen, Engineering Academic Advisor as well as event organizer, said. “In the introduction class E101, students learn about the design cycle and in the last part of the course they actually work on these projects.”
Freshman students chose from nine projects to work on and will display their work, science-fair style, in the McKimmon Center. Examples of the nine options include a hovercraft design project, in which students must design a hovercraft that can carry a five-pound bag of sugar, a projectile precision launcher that must hit a target, and a nuclear reactor probe, which is actually tested in the university’s nuclear reactor.
Between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., the first group of students, competing in teams of three or four, will present their projects, with the top three teams from each project winning awards.
“We’ll finish up the morning session at about 11:30,” Queen explained. “Then that will be followed up by speaker, Lloyd Yates, who is representing Progress Energy and will be able to talk about things going on in industry.”
As part of the annual lecture series, Yates, president and chief executive of Progress Energy Carolinas, will speak from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m., after which the competition and presentations for the second half of students will begin, lasting until 3 p.m.
“This lecture is technically separate from the event, but we encourage students to stay for this excellent opportunity for students to learn about the dynamics in the industry,” Brian Koehler, Director of Engineering-Academic Affairs, said. “Progress Energy is a huge partner of the College of Engineering and NC State. They sponsor many opportunities and recruit tremendously from our engineers as well as non-engineers.”
The College of Engineering has put a large emphasis on the relationship between students and industry. In an article in the Wall Street Journal published in September, N.C. State ranked 15th out of the top schools for connecting engineering students to careers. The Freshman Engineering Design Day parallels the college’s outlook, and of the professors and faculty judging the students’ projects, representatives from industry, including GE, Progress Energy and IBM, will be reviewing the projects.
The goal of the program is to allow students to concentrate on the hands-on design aspect of engineering as well as learn how to take advantage of resources on campus.
“Students will have a $40 spending limit on their projects,” Queen explained. “This mirrors much of the real world, since many projects will have a budget. Also, it’s a good opportunity for students to utilize resources and opportunities on campus, like the craft center in Thompson Hall.”
Along with the design aspect, the event also aims to spur teamwork amongst students.
“This project has definitely helped us in our teamwork skills,” David Bohle, a freshman in mechanical engineering, said. “I think that it will be good to see that one design is not the answer to a single problem. This very much so is like the real world. If you need to build a bridge, then you need to see different designs and hear different opinions.”
Bohle. along with his partners Alton Russell and Austin Underwood, are working on a project to design a water fountain.
“Every E101 student must choose a project, so we chose the water fountain,” Russel, a freshman in biomedical engineering, explained. “The objective is to design a water fountain that would go in a foyer or a lobby of a building. I think we have a good chance to do well in the competition.”
The event is not exclusive to just engineering students. The McKimmon center will welcome parents of the competing students as well as students from K-12 school who are interested in learning more about engineering.