Engineering Concepts: Exploiting a Systems and Control Perspective

Introductory courses in engineering can be developed that satisfy multiple objectives. They can motivate and excite students who have already decided to study engineering or provide an introduction to engineering for students with primary interests in other fields. Developing such courses based on the theme of systems and control is very effective. These courses can present multidisciplinary problems, emphasize the systems viewpoint, and introduce engineering problems, principles, practices and solutions. Application areas can be chosen that have special appeal to students from diverse backgrounds. Theory, simulations and experiments can be interwoven through interesting projects. In this paper we discuss such an introductory engineering course developed and taught at Mt Holyoke College. The course pays special attention to the fact that Mount Holyoke College is an all-female liberal arts institution having a 3-2 engineering program in association with several engineering colleges.