Engineering Classes at IIT

When I was in high school, I wasn't sure what exactly I wanted to do when I graduated, but one thing was for sure. There was no way I was going into engineering. I decided to study architecture instead. And when that failed to work out like I was hoping, I realized that all of the things I missed (math, science, logic) were all the important parts of engineering! So I decided to make the switch to architectural engineering, and I couldn't be happier. And I don't think I could have gotten where I am now without the help of IIT (I know that sounds really lame and a lot like a cheesy commercial, but bear with me here).

You see, the cool thing about the engineering programs here (any program, really) is that you get the chance to see from your first semester what your chosen profession will be like once you graduate. It was how I figured out architecture wasn't for me, and it was how I figured out how architectural engineering was. You jump right into specialty classes which you take right along side your general education requirements. This past semester I was able to take Physics III and Thermal Fluids Engineering simultaneously; they shared similar concepts and I was able to use both together to learn the material better than if I was taking either on its own.

Also, one of my professors is trying something new. Dr Snyder, who taught my Fluids class, and also taught my Illumination class, is spending a lot of his time trying to use Blackboard in new ways. Most of the high schools in the area already use Blackboard, but for those that are not aware, the Blackboard Academic Suite is an online program that teachers can use to post homework assignments, slide shows, grades, links, notes, and more, all for the students to access at their leisure.



What Dr Snyder is doing is, as he puts it, "flipping the classroom." He teaches the Thermo class online as well as in person, so he has a collection of his lectures that were taped for the online students. These lectures were posted to Blackboard along with the notes he took for the class (book pages, photos of the whiteboards, PDF's, etc.) for us to use as students in his in-person class. Now, if a professor does this, it is usually just there as an extra resource for the students to use. With Dr Snyder, though, he actually makes us watch the lectures on our own as "homework." We "go to lecture" on our own time. This is great, because I can pause and rewind the lecture. I can even break up the lecture into manageable chunks, and split it up into multiple days. This way if I ever find myself getting tired, distracted, whatever, I can put it off until a time where I will be more focused.

And because we are watching the lectures outside of class, when we actually come to class, we do homework. My professor will give us a set of problems to do during the class, and we work on them in teams of four. So not only are we working on our "homework" in groups, but our professor is there to answer any questions we might (or rather, will) have on the problems. Dr Snyder knows that one of the best ways to learn material is to learn it yourself. "Self-directed learners" tend to learn things faster and better than regular students, and this class arrangement allows everyone to learn in that fashion while still having the professor for support.

Watching the lectures on our own time helps us to learn the material at our own pace, and when we come to class, we are able to use our team to get through the problems without getting stuck, since we have our classmates as well as our professor as a resource. I love this class format, since the homework gets done in class (thereby relieving some of the homework stress I would normally have), I learn the material better, and we get tested every week, which can be a bit hard sometimes, but it helps to reinforce what we learn. And all the tests are on Blackboard too, so we can take the test when we feel we are ready (as long as we take it by a weekly due date, of course).

Now, most classes are not taught this way, even at Illinois Tech. This is something brand-new my professor decided to test-drive last summer, and it seems to be working very well. Most classes are your standard lecture- or lab-based class, though there are variations to this tried-and-true formula. It's just a way that we are trying to innovate where we might see a need to. It's kind of a theme here. That's not to say though that "regular" classes are not committed to your success. You have at your disposal your professor (who has scheduled office hours), your TA (again, who has his/her own office hours), your classmates, and the ARC, or Academic Resource Center, which is supplied with computers, textbooks, and tutors who can help you through almost any class or assignment.

We do a lot of innovating at this school. And part of the professors' jobs mean preparing students to do the same both while they're here and when they are released into the world. And what comes out of all this innovation/research can be completely surprising. It could be something small, like Silly Putty or Pop Tarts, or it could be something important like magnetic tape or the cell phone (all of these things have either been invented here at Illinois Tech or by an alumnus). Even the students here get in on the action. The IPRO's are a great example. Much of the research and prototyping done through our IPRO program results in new things.

The labs are some of my favorite classes here. I usually didn't like them in high school. High school was all about learning how to write reports and learning things you already knew. Though dissecting that pig was pretty awesome. No, here, it's a lot different. Since you already know the principles of writing reports (which obviously changes a bit from high school as the ones you will write here will be a bit different) you can spend most of your effort on the actual labs, which are really cool--and you actually learn stuff! A lot of them are things you might actually do in the field, like soil studies or surveying. That is not to say that the lab reports don't take a lot of time. They definitely do, but the thought processes as to the formatting aren't as heavy-duty once you know how to put the report together. Your results may vary, of course.

All these things apply to our engineering programs, whether we are talking about Computer Engineering, Civil Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, or Architectural Engineering. The things we do here ensure that what we are teaching is the most current material we can offer. Many schools have faculty that know everything there is to know about their respective subjects from ten years ago. At IIT, we make sure that our professors keep up to date with their engineering and math and science so you are learning about developments in your respective fields as they happen. This ensures that when you graduate you have to do as little catch-up as possible when you are thrown out the door with that shiny new engineering degree in your hands. It is a wonderful thing to say the least.