Rethinking the Introduction to an Engineering Course

The student consumerism movement along with rapidly changing professional demands and opportunities are forces which will require engineering departments or colleges to inform new students more fully of their educational programs and career opportunities. The introductory engineering course is a natural place to provide such a service and yet if the current literature on engineering education and college catalogs is any gauge, this course is under-utilized and ineffectively organized. This paper discusses ECE 0100, an Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering, which is currently being offered at Wayne State University. This course incorporates the educational philosophy and assumptions advocated by humanistic psychology and shows that such an approach naturally satisfies the information requirements created by student consumerism and changing professionsal needs.