The First-Year Experience Although most engineering programs are rigorous, not all of them provide a good “learning” environment, especially for first-year students. In addition to selecting an institution that has excellent library facilities, top-notch laboratory equipment, a world-class faculty, and solid advising, counseling, and tutoring services, many prospective students are comparing how different engineering schools “teach” engineering. Increasingly, instead of choosing traditional lecture-based programs, they are selecting institutions with interactive programs and courses like the College of Engineering’s first-year sequence, EG111 and 112. Based largely in the Engineering Learning Center, EG111 and 112 is a hands-on, interactive sequence that supports the premise that the best “learning” is achieved through “doing.” The courses are designed to help students begin to understand the nature of engineering, develop and apply fundamental engineering skills, and gain practical design experience. Students are assigned two projects during each course which focus on multidisciplinary systems, their behavior, and their interdependent parts. They work in teams using engineering models to analyze, build, test, and demonstrate their designs, while documenting their rationale and design decisions. They function as engineers, which helps them become independent thinkers who can creatively solve technical problems.