This full-year, project-based course exposes students to a series of design projects that will develop both technical and professional skills.
With a team of faculty mentors, instructional assistants, lab technicians and teaching assistants on hand to lend support, students will develop projects to be featured in a personal online portfolio that can be incorporated into co-op job applications.
Introduce concepts
Three one-hour classes per week to introduce new subjects, reinforce interesting topics and learn about the profession of engineering.
Develop skills
Two three-hour labs per week to develop technical skills.
Apply in real life
Two hours per week to work with your group on projects, as well as to build and test prototypes in our virtual design studio, with access to the instructional team
Design an airport luggage sorting and flight database system.
Design and optimize a wastewater filtration system.
Design and build a product for a client from a community of people with disability.
Tutorials (Design Studio) are an opportunity for students to meet regularly with their team as they work on a design project. There are four major design projects throughout the course. Tutorials are 2 hours and faculty mentors and TA’s will be available during your scheduled time.
Labs introduce and reinforce applications in computing, graphic design, materials science, and technical communication. Most labs will require you to complete and submit an assignment. Labs are 2 hours and 50 minutes/week, twice per week.
Lectures covering foundational course content will be scheduled and delivered in-person to students. Lectures will be recorded and available for viewing afterwards.
Students can ask questions in instructor’s office hours, or request appointments via email or Teams. Contact information will be provided to students when the course outline is released later in the summer.
Project showcases will occur at an in-person showcase at the end of the school year.
No, it is a full year course running from September until April that is 13 units. Most courses are 3 units each. These 3 units typically correspond to 3 lecture hours and either a weekly lab or a weekly tutorial. In 1P13, you will have 3 lecture hours, 2 weekly labs and 1 weekly tutorial. And this will take place in both the Fall term and Winter term.
You will work in teams of 4-5 students that are set by the instructional team, and these will change with each design project.
A laptop running Windows is strongly recommended. Lab will require use of Autodesk Inventor, which runs on Windows. For students with a Mac, students will be able to connect remotely to a virtual machine running Windows, where all the required software will be available to them. While students can depend on access to these virtual machines during their scheduled lab, access outside lab time will depend on demand. By having Windows, students can access Autodesk Inventor 24/7.
TLDR: it won’t hinder you if you have a Mac, but you’ll have so much more flexibility running Windows
EMBER will help prepare you for Chem, Computing, Math, and Physics, but will also give you a chance to meet professors, TAs, and students.
Python 3.8 is taught to students in 1P13 assuming no prior knowledge of coding. The only prior knowledge we will assume you have is based on your high school required courses – Chemistry, Physics, Calculus, and English. If you are not feeling confident in your math and sciences, EMBER will help with getting you up to speed. It’s free and offered virtually.
Each major project will range in length from 4 to 6 weeks.
“It’s really helpful to be able to connect with a group of first year students right at the start of the year in the first design project, as it helps you not only start to collaborate with like-minded people, but it also gives you a chance to make friendships with other people in your program. It’s also been an amazing way to learn how to work with different types of people, since this is a skill that is needed in the workplace.”
“It is extremely easy to connect with my TAs and Professors via Microsoft teams. The professors, TAs and IAIs, have made so much effort to make sure we succeed in this course by providing accessible resources like lab demos, FAQS etc. on Avenue to Learn and hosting office hours.”
“Don’t underestimate yourself! While the course teaches everything about coding, modelling and materials from the ground up, students do enter the program with varying skill sets and experiences which can feel overwhelming. There are plenty of opportunities to improve and learn from others, be it your instructors or teammates. Take part in contributing to the collaborative environment by communicating with others and being open to learn to become the best engineer you can be.”
