Evolution of a first year project based design course

First year project based design courses may face several obstacles. The students have very limited experience in design, construction and realization of prototypes, and in testing and evaluation of their designs. Most first year introduction to engineering courses cover a wide variety of important topics, but lack a strong emphasis on design. Originally our Introduction to Engineering course was similar to those offered at other institutions. In 2004 the format and focus of this course was transformed into a project based design course for first year students. This paper discusses the changes that have been implemented over the past nine years, to the point where this first year course now contains most of the elements of more advanced design courses at our institution.