A Review of Multi-Disciplinary Introduction-to-Engineering Courses and Unified-First-Year Engineering Programs

Abstract

To better align the expectations of incoming freshmen with their choice-of-major, the authors are developing a common first-semester engineering course to introduce students to all engineering opportunities while it is still possible for them to change majors and maintain their original graduation timeline. In this paper, the authors provide an extensive review of introduction-toengineering courses and unified-first-year engineering programs across the United States. A summary of lessons learned will guide development of a new all-discipline introductory course at the authors' home institution and position it as the cornerstone of a unified all-discipline freshman year.