ENGR 197A
(formerly ENGR 193)
Course Description
This course is the first course of a senior design capstone experience. This junior class is designed to be an introduction to senior design project requirements, the overall design process, including needs assessment and problem definition, as well as project management, teaming skills, and non-technical issues in design. By the end of the quarter, students should have a solid idea for their senior design project, an advisor, and team members!
Prerequisites - none; this is a graded 1-unit class
This course is also listed as CENG 192A, CSEN 192 , ECEN 192, and ENGR 193.
This course has been newly piloted, first in Spring 2023 with three School of Engineering departments, Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, and General Engineering. Based on the success of the first pilot, a second pilot Spring 2024, is ongoing currently, with the above departments as well as our Computer Science and Engineering department.
Course goals and objectives can be viewed to the left.
Overall, the course goal is to help students discern their own interest in a senior design project, through exploration of their own interest in growth, knowledge, and skills prior to graduation. We teach specifically about teamwork, offer projects through faculty and staff project pitches, and even have a discussion board for student-led pitches. We spend time going over project needs statements and scoping, and have students communicate their project choices through a short project pitch presentation and proposal at the end of the quarter.
We are currently working to collect student feedback on the offered course sessions/topics and will iterate on the course for the next Academic Year.
