BY BETH WOJCIECHOWSKI
Staff Reporter
I’ll preface this by saying that while my computer science major technically falls under the “Hengineer” umbrella, I do not personally consider myself to be an engineering major, and my experiences in Engineering 101 only serve to emphasize that feeling.
Introduction to Engineering, or EGGG101, is the replacement for UNIV101: First Year Experience for freshmen whose majors fall under the Engineering department. Despite the large discrepancies between the workload for UNIV101 and EGGG101, only one additional credit hour is awarded for EGGG101.
While I watched my non-engineering major roommate complete a “passport” of the university in UNIV101, I was responsible for completing two large-scale engineering projects. While I did find some of the material in EGGG101 interesting, I spent most of the semester wishing that the course was worth three credit hours, as I was putting in about 10 hours worth of work per week into the course.
Another issue I had with the course is that it felt very focused on material related to mechanical engineering and civil engineering, and barely touched on the topics of computer engineering, chemical engineering, computer science and biomedical engineering. As my group for the project was made up entirely of the latter majors, we definitely felt as though we weren’t as equipped for some elements of the class when compared to our civil and mechanical engineering counterparts.
While I do understand the importance of some of the course’s information, at times I felt as though my life would have been much simpler if I were in UNIV101, especially since EGGG101 barely had anything to do with computer science.
Despite the fact that I spent my semester also taking Analytical Geometry & Calculus, Introduction to Feminist Theory and Introduction to Computer Science I, EGGG101 was still the class that I spent the most time doing homework for week after week.
I spent many hours in library study rooms trying to teach myself CAD (3D printing software), just to ensure that my group would not fall behind on our project or be disadvantaged by a lack of prior knowledge.
While I certainly had negative experiences in this course, there definitely were a few positive aspects that I appreciated.
For one, I will say that this course helped me to improve upon my time management skills, as I had to balance the course load of this class with the three other classes I was taking at the same time.
Most importantly though, this course helped me form a sense of community with my peers.
We were assigned peer groups during the first week of the class and worked with three groups until the end of the semester. Through having these assigned groups, I found myself becoming close friends with people that I otherwise would not have gotten the chance to interact with.
While EGGG101 does have its negative aspects, it can end up being a beneficial experience, especially if you go into it with an open mind — and a relatively open schedule.
Beth Wojciechowski is a staff reporter at The Review. Her opinions are her own and do not represent the majority opinion of The Review staff. She may be reached at bethwoj@udel.edu.
