The Engineering Experience

Though students at Purdue have to commit a share of their time to their studies, it is so important to have a balance of work and fun. Luckily, Purdue has a plethora of traditions and exciting bucket list items to make sure that students are making the most of their college experience. Through taking part in some classic Boilermaker traditions myself, Purdue went from a foreign place to my home, and I became part of the Purdue family. To make the most of your Purdue experience, I would recommend making and fulfilling a similar bucket list during your time here! 1. Fountain Run When you arrive on campus in the late summer, it is the perfect time to do one of my favorite traditions: the Fountain Run! Purdue has four fountains conveniently located in a loop. It is a time-honored tradition to race through the Engineering Fountain, the Stone Lion Fountain (which is said to grant students luck on an exam or presentation should they drink the water out of each head), the Memorial Fountain, an...

Returning to campus this fall during the middle of a pandemic, I was very excited to switch from all online to in-person and hybrid classes and labs. This year Purdue classes were either fully in-person, hybrid (meaning students would attend class for one day and be online for the rest), as well as fully online classes. Since lab is so fundamental for students’ understanding of many engineering topics, Purdue committed to having in-person labs for this fall semester. For many students to truly learn the material covered in their courses and lectures, they must actively practice through labs. Labs help us actively learn the concepts discussed in lecture through a very hands-on approach. Additionally, students are expected to work in teams during lab, as they will in the workplace. The collaborative environment in lab allows students to learn how to work with others on an engineering project team. Thus, in-person labs truly enrich an engineering education.     ...

A small group of friends and me at the VOSS Model during the first week of classes The beginning of my freshman year of college blended a little bit with the end of my senior year of high school. At the end of my senior year, I went online and while doing online school I got put in a Snapchat group off of the Purdue 2024 Facebook page. It was through this chat that I met my roommate, Ananya, and my current group of friends; the 14 of us talked through video chats and text from April until we arrived on campus in August. Once we got on campus, we worked to ensure that although we couldn’t have the normal freshman experience, we could still have a good fall semester.  Academically, I have two classes on campus -- I have concert band every Tuesday and Thursday, and attend my collaborative leadership class on Tuesdays, too. My first year engineering class is over Zoom on Wednesdays and Fridays and although my engineering team and I cannot meet in person during the class, we usually lik...

Purdue students at a Black Lives Matter March     On March 13th 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year old Black woman and emergency medical technician from Louisville, was shot five times and killed by police officers in her own home. On October 9th 2020, I attended a socially-distanced candlelight vigil for the late Breonna Taylor, organized by the Black Students Union. Students came from all corners of campus to gather outside of Class of 1950 and honor the memory of Breonna Taylor. Brave Black men and women stood at the center of the crowd to speak, sing, and recite poems. Every single word they delivered echoed their passion for attaining justice for Breonna Taylor as well as their sympathy for the hardships the Black community, especially Black women and transgender women, face in this country everyday. Finally, they handed out candles to the crowd and we had a moment of silence for Breonna Taylor.        This event was incredibly moving, well orga...

As a freshman in Purdue Engineering, you are required to go through the First Year Engineering (FYE) curriculum, and there are several different pathways you can take to complete your first year (as described in the previous post). The final option not mentioned in the blog post from November 3rd is the Honors Engineering Program. In order to complete the Honors Engineering Program, you must be enrolled in the Honors College, which has a separate application, or you can be a Goss Scholar . After you have been accepted into Purdue’s FYE program, you can apply to be a Goss Scholar, and you will be placed in a learning community for your first year. You do not have to be in the Honors College to be a Goss Scholar, but if a student majoring in engineering is accepted into the Honors College, then they are automatically considered a Goss Scholar.  First-year students in Goss Scholars most commonly take ENGR 161/162 (Introduction to Innovation and the Physical Sciences of Engineering Des...

When exploring the option of pursuing a bachelor’s degree in engineering, many often assume that means working in industry for an indefinite amount of time after those four years of college. However, an engineering degree is an amazing gateway to a multitude of different careers. Of course, working in industry is a common and great choice for many, but there are other potential career paths, including a higher education in research (i.e. PhD), professional careers in medicine and law, and working in more business-related roles that engineering students follow.  Me and fellow LT Madeleine walking through Engineering Mall Kat Kerr, a junior studying Biomedical Engineering, chose engineering as a route to pursue a higher education in research, and has been participating in undergraduate research since her freshman year. She says, “I chose BME for graduate school because of the abundance of interesting research being conducted. Being able to take classes as an undergrad and seeing the ...

The First-Year Engineering Program (FYE) at Purdue is the entry point for all beginning engineering students. In the FYE program, students complete foundational coursework in math, science, engineering, and communications. There are many different paths students can take to fulfill the FYE requirements that expose them to teamwork, industry opportunities, and networking. We hope this blog gives you more insight into Purdue’s exceptional FYE program! PAWS EPICS 2020 Team Officers Left to Right: Charlotte Jones (Communications Officer), Thomas Sanders (Project Manager), Elisabeth Casetti (Financial Officer) Traditional Route ENGR 131/132, the most common path taken by students, places heavy emphasis on teamwork in a project setting. Students take ENGR 131 first semester which covers Excel techniques such as histograms, formatting data efficiently, and analyzing data to solve a problem. Then, students take ENGR 132 second semester which covers MATLAB programming. Prior experience in Excel...