Effects on students of a freshman engineering design course

University of Wisconsin-Madison engineering professors piloted a freshman introduction to engineering course with 67 students in fall 1994. Several departments now require the course, and the fall 1995 enrollment was increased to 224 students. The three-credit course concentrates on having students work in teams to identify customer needs, find solutions, and design a final product. Students in lab sections of twelve to eighteen first work in small groups of three or four to create proposed solutions, then meet as a lab section to decide on a solution and design and test it. Students conclude the course with formal presentations to students, faculty, and customers. Qualitative evaluation information based on observations and interviews with students and faculty, plus open-ended surveys completed by students, indicates that the students experienced engineering in a personal, supportive team-oriented environment. The course helped students make informed career decisions, understand the context for courses within an engineering curricula and develop a sense of professional identity as engineers. Retention data indicates that students who took the course are staying in engineering into the second semester of their sophomore year at a higher rate than other students.