The University of Idaho College of Engineering has been recognized as one of 29 undergraduate engineering programs that incorporate real world applications into their education and Dean Larry Stauffer said the college prides itself on the amount of opportunities students have to gain with hands-on experience.
He said one of the main ways students gain experience is through their final year capstone projects, for which the college has been recognized.
“It integrates all you learned into a single project, pulling all your knowledge and skill together,” Stauffer said.
The vast majority of the final projects are sponsored by various companies, and usually have students from different engineering departments work together, Stauffer said.
For the projects, teams of students work together to make something that a company sponsors.
Stauffer said they design the project, build proto-types, test the projects and build more proto-types.he said, “Making the students get real world experience.”
This capstone project was recently recognized by the National Academy of Engineering and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. — a semiconductor design company for computer devices.
AMD sponsored the report “Infusing Real World Experiences into Engineering Education,” put out by the NAE.
The report recognizes 29 undergraduate engineering programs that incorporate real world applications into their education.
UI is one of the colleges recognized out of 95 applicants, alongside universities such as Duke, Cornell and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and in the same category as Pennsylvania State University and Michigan Technological University.
The report states that UI’s capstone project helps students use current “best practices,” develop teamwork and communication and increase the collaboration between colleges and the industry.
Stauffer said the capstone project started in the early ‘90s. He also said that to show others what the final projects are, they hold the Engineering Design Expo in the spring, which is like a trade show but with all of the projects that students did during that school year.
The expo and the way the projects are funded — by industry sponsors and the University — were also discussed in the report.
“I’m glad to see this out,” Stauffer said about the report. “It highlights one of the things we are known for, and I am glad we got the recognition of the National Academy.”
Craig Martin, a junior studying civil engineering at UI said he chose UI because of the small class sizes and the experience he would get with the curriculum.
He said the capstone is great.
“It shows that people can work with others to come to a conclusion on a project, and that’s when you show that you can apply all the concepts from classes to a real project,” Martin said.
Stauffer also said the Engineering Scholars program offers a hands-on experience for students.
Dillon Irminger, a sophomore in the chemical engineering program, said the Scholars Program gave him the opportunity to participate in an actual graduate level research program — working on ways to better splint horse legs.
He said the capstone program gives students the hands-on experience they really need, and that students actually get to work on projects they want to work on instead of just going through the college career just to get the degree.
Stauffer said that the industry feedback he has gotten about graduates from the College of Engineering is that they have strong fundamental grasp of the industry and can tackle tough problems because they understand real engineering principles.
He said the capstone, and other hands-on experiences offered at UI, give the students that understanding.
Allison Griffith can be reached at [email protected]