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Discipline-Specific Organizations at Purdue Looking for a way to gain crucial leadership, networking, and communication skills? Want to boost your professional development expertise and connect with others in your major? If so, discipline-specific organizations in the engineering school here at Purdue are the perfect place to do so! These organizations include the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and more. Almost every engineering discipline at Purdue has a chapter for national engineering organizations such as those provided above. Also, once admitted to your discipline of choice, in most disciplines you will automatically become a member of the organization correlating with your major. There are tons of opportunities to get more involved, however, and build connections with those in your discipline. Many of the organizations participate in...

Out of the three options, EPICS, Honors, and ENGR 131/132, ENGR 131/132 is the most common course that engineering students take at Purdue. With over 2000 students enrolled in these classes each semester, the FYE department is able to break the classes down into sections of around 120 students. While this may seem large, each class contains 4 undergraduate teaching assistants, 1 graduate teaching assistant, and the main professor, making the student to teacher ratio much lower. ENGR 131/132 is broken up into two semesters: the first semester is 131 and the second is 132. In both courses, students are separated into teams of four that they will work with throughout the entire semester. In ENGR 131, Excel is the main platform covered, while 132 includes MATLAB. Each course spends about half the semester covering the basics of the program (you do not need any prior experience with Excel or MATLAB to succeed) and spends the other half working on a group project. In 131, the final project t...

To meet the first-year engineering course requirement, freshmen can take Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) and ENGR 133 opposed to the regular engineering courses (ENGR 131/132). To be admitted to the EPICS living learning community, which is optional but highly recommended, freshmen must apply during the housing process to be placed with other students who will be taking the EPICS course. If admitted, the students will register to take ENGR 133 instead of ENGR 131/132. ENGR 133 is only one semester, compared to the standard ENGR 131/132 courses, which take two semesters to complete. The ENGR 133 route is slightly more challenging at first, but it is completely bearable. Enrolling in ENGR 133 requires freshmen to take a lab in EPICS for two semesters. EPICS teams meet for two hours a week in lab, and during this time, they work on real, hands-on projects. Through this experience, students are able to immediatel...

At Purdue, there are many ways to give back to the community.  One of these is the EPICS program.  EPICS stands for Engineering Projects in Community Service; however, anyone is allowed to join an EPICS team, even if they aren’t in engineering!  Within the EPICS program there are over 40 teams with over 700 students across all disciplines.  Therefore, everyone is able to find their place with the EPICS program.  Everyone has a different experience of how they joined the EPICS program.             As a freshman, I was a part of the EPICS first year learning community. This meant I was enrolled in the EPICS First Year Engineering (FYE) course instead of the traditional FYE course.  After being placed on an EPICS team with students of all different skill levels, a team breaks up into subteams. On a subteam, the design lead helps to narrow the focus to a smaller component of the overall project.  Takin...

As a Purdue Engineer, there are various opportunities to excel academically outside of class. One such opportunity is getting involved in undergraduate research. Engineering students are able to experience this in several ways. Every engineering discipline offers a variety of research fields to their students with hands-on experience and exposure to the research process and tools for solving real-life problems. The Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department at Purdue offers a unique prospect for research, known as Vertically Integrated Projects. Under this program, an ECE student can choose from several teams to work on a project under a professor. Examples of different projects include analyzing data from network cameras from all around the world, develop a visual analytic system based on sensor data using front-end technologies or create Purdue’s own System-on-a-Chip. Purdue also offers an 11-week Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) every year for students inter...

Although college is very fun, it requires hard work! The adjustment from high school to college courses can be a big one, so it will take some time to get into the swing of things. Never fear though, we are here to give you some tips and tricks for a successful transition to college! Keep Track of Your Schedule             One of the biggest changes in college is the amount of responsibility you have to take on. From the first day of classes, you need to be keeping track of your schedule and upcoming due dates. Many of your assignments will be posted online, so it is important to check Blackboard frequently. In addition, lectures are much larger than high school so you will feel a little more removed from your professor. Therefore, take advantage of office hours as they are a great opportunity to talk one on one with your professors and give them a chance to get to know you. Try to go to as many office hours as you can and take adva...

  First-Year Engineering Classes             Looking ahead to classes next fall may seem overwhelming and even scary; but I am here to give you a sneak peek into what your freshmen year classes may look like. Since you come into Purdue as an undeclared engineering major, your first semester classes are going to be a lot about figuring out what major is right for you. So here is a little bit about the main classes you’ll take during your freshmen year: LT Megan and Allison in front of their favorite engineering building :) Engineering 131/132: Unless you are in EPICS or the honors college, this will be the first engineering class all Purdue Engineers take. This class operates with a flipped classroom approach, meaning you watch lectures and take notes outside of class, so that class time can be spent working in teams. From the start of the semester, you will be placed in a 4-person engineering team, whom you will sit with and complete the majority of y...