UNC System Research Grant Transforms First-Year Engineering Course

Before incoming students to NC State’s College of Engineering separate into their various disciplines, they all undergo two courses in the First-Year Engineering Program to introduce them to their chosen fields. 

One of these, Engineering 101, serves as an introduction to problem solving in engineering and allows students to get into the development of a project from an engineering point of view. Julio Terán, an academic advisor and lecturer in the first-year program, is setting out to change that course in a way that will benefit the students themselves, the university and the larger community. 

I believe that when we are in the process of learning, there might be people that just come up with a great curiosity.

Thanks to a UNC System grant obtained through collaboration with the Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR), Terán will lead the development of new projects with the principles of carbon neutrality integrated into them. 

“Since they’re in their first year of college, there might be these breakthrough ideas,” Terán said. “I believe that when we are in the process of learning, there might be people that just come up with a great curiosity, great ideas, maybe a vision. And we want to foster that vision, and we also want to make sure that we are compliant with engineering knowledge and the process of how things normally develop in the real world.”

This spring, the OUR held a university-wide contest in which various academic professionals around campus submitted their research proposals to the office. 

OUR staff then selected Terán’s proposal as the winner, submitting it for the UNC System’s Undergraduate Research Award. 

“It was very well researched,” said Catherine Showalter, the OUR’s associate director. “It was clear, everything was connected, both within what the students would be doing and outside of that. It was innovative, it was ready for scalability and collaboration between a number of students and partners on campus. I think the students are going to get to practice and apply a number of skills related to research and this particular topic area, so I think it’s one of those projects that was very, very well written and clear, and provides so much opportunity for collaboration and skill building.” 

It was a double win.

Terán submitted his proposal under the CUREs category for the “development or expansion of novel and/or innovative curricula that substantively include undergraduate research, recognizing that the goal of CUREs is to enhance research skills development toward the expansion of access to research opportunities.”

The UNC System awarded Terán $23,985.10 to implement his proposal in the First-Year Engineering Course. 

“It was a double win,” Terán said. “Not only was I able to win an internal competition, but I also got awarded the funding. So that was pretty satisfying for me personally.” 

Terán explained that there will be course project offerings that focus on subjects such as on campus water and waste management to promote sustainability and carbon neutrality. 

He said he spoke with the university’s sustainability and facilities managers in designing his proposal and the course. 

“Sustainability as a framework is more than the environment or materials,” Terán said. “It has many social justice, leadership and product development aspects that have to be taken into consideration. The idea of integrating the carbon neutrality framework is just to hopefully generate a little bit more ownership towards our students that are motivated and well-intended to create solutions.”

The first part of the course will focus on teaching students how to conduct research for their projects, developing skills such as reading and analyzing scholarly articles, 3-D visualization, and the engineering design cycle. The second part involves implementing these ideas through prototyping and construction using resources such as the Library spaces, the Engineering Lab, and various makerspaces around campus. 

The students will present at an event called First Year Engineering Design Day (FEDD), which has been hosted by the College of Engineering for more than 24 years, in which all of the projects from the year are presented. 

“We want to create more pertinence, engage the students to solve big-scale problems that they can feel related to,” Terán said. “If we talk about carbon capture, we know there are a variety of teams, departments and researchers that are trying to figure it out.”

One of the most important hallmarks of Terán’s plan is its scale and sustainability. 

Specific projects will be selected as options for the next year’s groups of engineering students, allowing the work on the projects to continue and connecting students from different cohorts who all have their fingerprints on the same project. 

“I like how it is very collaborative not just with the students being in groups, but from year to year,” said Janet Goins, the OUR’s director. “This year will focus on the initial ideas, but the next year will take those a step further, and then the next further. It’s going to progress much slower than it would if it was just the same research group year in and year out, but I like that it’s like a relay race. They get to see it across the finish line. I suspect that will be something that is also rather exciting for alumni in the future to be able to check in and see how things are going.”

The hope is also that the course and its projects can benefit the entire university by integrating sustainability and carbon neutrality principles that can be shared with the community to improve those aspects of campus. 

“I believe that it is important that we keep our house as best kept as possible,” Terán said. “If we can share those strategies with others, that’s fantastic. Hopefully, it will help the students drive that willingness they already have to create change.”