The main focus of the class should be to provide a stimulating and exciting environment in which to introduce young engineers to the art. Rather than a set of lectures given by a professor along with a set of labs loosely monitored by a TA, the class will provide an integration of lab and lecture that will emphasize neither as most important but rather both as equal valued.
The core of the class will be a project - some ideas will be mentioned in the next section. The purpose of the project is to introduce students to all aspects of engineering and work in a team environment. The class will start off with an general overview of engineering concepts, ie what does each field cover, issues involved, and then continue on with a design project. The design project will be a pseudo competition, the outcome having NO bearing on the grade received whatsoever, in which the students will be given a general problem to solve and a set of tools to solve it with. The tools will be based on the MIT-Lego kits, customized specially for the ND class. A set of resources, including a few professors, will be available for the students use. During the project phase of the class, most learning will be done independently, with weekly project reports due to insure work is completed. Grades for the class will be given out according to the amount of effort put forth, based on the reports and evaluations of team members and faculty.