Novel Program for Engineering Student Retention

摘要

Since many students leave engineering without experiencing the excitement of engineering design, a two week program was initiated summer 2012 at the University of South Alabama for high-achieving incoming engineering students.The program introduced students to two highly popular areas: robotics and composite materials.The participants were exposed to a graphical programming tool, LabVIEW, which is widely used in engineering curricula, and used the tool to program LEGO MINDSTORM robots.This combination provided immediate, visual, verification of project solutions.The students quickly gained skills and facility with both tools, creatively addressing the various assigned tasks.Preliminary assessments indicate that the program was highly successful in capturing the interest of the participants and should lead to increased retention of these students in engineering.