College of Engineering

Engineering Education

Overview

The Department of Engineering Education (ENGE) teaches first-year and second-year engineering courses, advises General Engineering (GE) students, and offers a graduate certificate and a Ph.D. in engineering education. The department offers second-year courses in engineering topics such as computer-aided design and programming.

At the undergraduate level, the department provides the foundation for students to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in one of the College of Engineering programs and move into degree-related employment or graduate studies. At the graduate level, the department prepares students to teach engineering and conduct research related to teaching, learning, and assessment in engineering contexts.

Accreditation statements may be found in the listings for individual undergraduate degree programs.

Special Facilities

The department includes several research laboratories that focus on generating cutting-edge research in engineering education and translating that research into practice to enhance undergraduate education. Undergraduate students are welcome to join in research projects in these labs and centers. http://www.enge.vt.edu/facilities-labs.html.

• The Frith Freshman Design Laboratory (Frith Lab) is a space designed to support the retention and development of young engineers through hands-on learning, peer mentoring, and authentic problem-solving. Part collaboration and innovation space, part fabrication and prototyping space, and part learning laboratory, the Frith Lab enables first-year engineering students to learn by dissecting, designing, making, and analyzing engineering products. It features a Tensile/Compression Materials Testing machine, 3-D printers, laser engraver, CNC router, and drill press, along with various hand tools, housed in toolboxes available for checkout. http://www.enge.vt.edu/facilities-labs/84-frith-lab.html
• The VT DEEP Lab (Data Enlightened Educational Practice) strives to find ways to bring educational data into the conversation to guide decision-making processes for students, faculty, administrators, and policy makers.  Our team takes a systems perspective of higher education whereby we consider a complex set of interrelated variables in investigating educational outcomes.  Current projects include developing educational dashboards to illuminate broad patterns in learning data, investigating transfer students pathways into engineering, exploring shared leadership within student design teams using social network analysis, and exploring curricular, co-curricular, and organizational influences on the development of engineering students' learning outcomes.  Team members have conducted research in both the U.S. and Australian higher education contexts. http://www.enge.vt.edu/facilities-labs/147-deep-lab.html
• The LabVIEW Enabled Watershed Assessment System (LEWAS) integrates hardware and software components to develop learning modules and opportunities for water sustainability education and research. LEWAS brings real-time water data using wireless technology from the Webb branch of Stroubles creek, an on-campus stream, into our first year engineering class for water sustainability education. Integration of LEWAS into upper level engineering courses is in progress. http://www.lewas.centers.vt.edu/
• The Virginia Tech Engineering Communication Center integrates the professional and the technical to create a new kind of engineer. VTECC brings faculty, students, and professionals together to explore, design, practice, and teach communication and collaboration in support of engineering work. Our lab provides a creative think space for engineering students and faculty to break through disciplinary molds and collaborate across boundaries to drive innovation.  http://www.vtecc.eng.vt.edu/

First Year Students and General Engineering

The General Engineering (GE) program of the EngE department serves first-year students in the College of Engineering. Through EngE courses, first-year students participate in problem solving and design exercises that represent the essence of the engineering profession. The courses emphasize team-based, design-oriented, hands-on experiences to develop students’ concepts of engineering and engineering methods, while reinforcing the role of concurrent required courses (e.g. mathematics, chemistry, English, physics). They also serve as a foundation for subsequent courses in the various engineering curricula. Coverage of engineering ethics instills a sense of the responsibilities of engineers to society. Algorithm development and computer programming develop logical thinking, provide the background for computer use in later courses, and support problem-solving skills. Spatial visualization skills are developed through engineering graphics, a primary engineering tool. Through writing and presentations, students begin to develop professional communication skills, including audience analysis, visual rhetoric, effective writing styles, opportunities and problems posed by electronic writing environments, issues in collaborative writing, techniques of oral presentation, print and Web-based research, graphics for written and oral presentations, and editing.

All College of Engineering students must own 1) a convertible tablet PC or laptop and Windows 7 or 8 slate/tablet meeting current specifications, and 2) stipulated software used to analyze and solve problems in and out of class. Computer requirements for engineering students can be located at http://www.eng.vt.edu/it/requirement.

Process for Declaring a Degree-Granting Engineering Major

Entering students are admitted to General Engineering, the first-year program for all engineering curricula. As noted, this program introduces students to foundational concepts and practices in engineering, allows time to adjust to the College, and provides opportunities to investigate the College’s individual degree programs and select the branch of engineering or computer science best suited to their skills and interests. At the end of the year – after academic advising, contacts with the various departments, and satisfactory progress – students select a degree program and, if academically eligible, are transferred to the appropriate degree-granting department.

Entry into a degree-granting engineering department requires that students successfully complete all required first-year courses. Students must also earn a minimum grade of C- in any ENGE prefixed courses required before transferring into a degree-granting engineering department.

Please see the College of Engineering catalog section titled “Required Academic Progress” for details, and visit http://www.enge.vt.edu/Undergraduate/changing_majors/index.html for application policies and dates.

Change of Major
Typical First Semester
CHEM 1035: General Chemistry	(3)
CHEM 1045: General Chemistry Lab	(1)
ENGE 1215: Foundations of Engineering (C-)	(2)
ENGL 1105: Freshman English	(3)
MATH 1225: Calculus of a Single Variable	(4)
Typical Second Semester
ENGE 1216: Foundations of Engineering (C-)	(2)
ENGL 1106: Freshman English	(3)
MATH 1226: Calculus of a Single Variable	(4)
PHYS 2305: Foundations of Physics I	(4)

Undergraduate Course Descriptions (ENGE)

1204: DIGITAL FUTURE TRANSITION
Builds on the principles and practice of engineering design introduced in 1024 and introduces various discipline-specific engineering tools. Basic computer organization and Boolean algebra. Signal and information coding and representation. Introduction to networking. For students who have successfully completed 1114 and are now planning to major in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or Electrical Engineering. Grade of C- or better required of all students attempting entry into College of Engineering programs. Attempts to achieve grade of C- or better limited to two attempts, including attempts utilizing the W grade option. Partially duplicates 1104. Prerequisite requires a grade of C- or better. Pre: 1114. (1H,1C)

1214: ENGINEERING DESIGN TRANSITION
Builds on the principles and practice of engineering design introduced in 1024 and introduces various discipline-specific engineering tools. Topics covered include computer assisted design and analysis and the graphics language. For students who have successfully completed 1104 and are currently planning to major in Aerospace Engineering, Biological Systems Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Engineering Science and Mechanics, Industrial and Systems Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining and Minerals Engineering, and Ocean Engineering. Grade of C- or better required of all students attempting entry into College of Engineering programs. Attempts to achieve grade of C- or better limited to two attempts, including attempts utilizing the W grade option. Partially duplicates 1114. Prerequisite requires grade of C- or better. Pre: 1104. (1H,1C)

1215-1216: FOUNDATIONS OF ENGINEERING
A first-year sequence to introduce general engineering students to the profession, including data collection and analysis, engineering, problem-solving, mathematical modeling, design, contemporary software tools, professional practices and expectations (e.g. communication, teamwork, ethics), and the diversity of fields and majors within engineering. All engineering majors require a grade of C- or better in 1215-16 for transfer into the major. Each course can only be attempted twice, including attempts utilizing the W grade option. 1215: Corequisites MATH 1205 or MATH 1225. Co: MATH 1225 for 1215. (1H,2L,2C)

1354: INTRO TO SPATIAL VISUALIZATION
Introduction to spatial visualization. Training to improve three-dimensional visualization skills. Does not count towards College of Engineering graduation credit. (1H,1C)

1434: FUNDAMENTALS OF ENGINEERING
Introduction to the profession and the College of Engineering. Foundation material in: problem definition, solution and presentation; design, including hands-on realization working in teams; modeling and visual representation of abstract and physical objects; scientific computation; algorithm development, computer implementation and application; documentation; ethics; and professionalism. Various discipline-specific engineering tools. Requires successful completion of a team-based project. Grade of C- or better is required of all students attempting entry into College of Engineering programs. Duplicates 1024, 1104, 1114, 1204, and 1214. This course counts as an attempt at each of those courses. Attempts to achieve grade of C- or better is limited to two attempts, including attempts utilizing the W grade option. Enrollment restricted to external transfer students. Co: MATH 1205. (5H,5C)

2314: ENGINEERING PROBLEM SOLVING WITH C++
Algorithmic problem solving techniques for engineering problems for various fields; flowcharting, pseudocode, object-oriented program development, editing, compiling, and debugging using the C++ programming language. For Engineering students only. Must have a C- or better in ENGE 1104 and/or ENGE 1114. Pre: (1104 or 1114), (MATH 1114 or MATH 2114), (MATH 1206 or MATH 1226). (1H,2L,2C)

2344: COMPUTER-AIDED DRAFTING
Introduction to computer-aided drafting concepts, primarily in two dimensions. Creation of two-dimensional system views utilizing lines, polygons, polylines, construction lines; creating drawing views principally applied to facilities design and layout. Must have C- or better in ENGE 1114. Pre: 1114 or 1104 or 1434. (1H,1C)

2514: INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING COMPUTATION AND CONTROL WITH LABVIEW
Introduces engineering computation and control using the LabVIEW graphical programming language and the text/ matrix-based (and MATLAB compatible) MathScript programming language. Topics include algorithm development, flowcharts, pseudocode, programming control structures, structured programming, object oriented programming (OOP), data-flow programming, data acquisition, analysis and device control. Partially duplicates ENGE 2314. Pre: 1104 or 1114 or 1434. (1H,2L,2C)

2974: INDEPENDENT STUDY
Variable credit course.

2984: SPECIAL STUDY
I
Variable credit course.

4974: INDEPENDENT STUDY
Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4984: SPECIAL STUDY
Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

4994: UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
Variable credit course. X-grade allowed.

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