Exploring Engineering: An Introduction for Freshmen to Engineering and to the Design Process

Nearly all 4-year college engineering programs, and even some 2-year engineering technology programs, have some form of "introduction to engineering” requirement for incoming freshman. Moreover,many incoming freshman engineers do not yet have an engineering major in mind.

Yet at the same time, U.S. engineering schools are emphasizing engineering as a complex, interdisciplinary body of knowledge. Engineers when put into real jobs will have to at some point draw upon that diverse knowledge.

This new textbook has been written to meet those needs of introductory engineering courses. It will be flexible enough to give instructors the ability to adapt it for a variety of approaches to the introduction of modern engineering to new students, as well as providing the most important essentials that hold all engineering disciplines together.

* Introduces the fundamental physical, chemical and material foundations bases for all engineering work, including motion, force, conservation and transformation of energy, and the simple mechanics of wheels, gears, and rotating machinery
* Provides simple data spreadsheets and other analytical "tools of the trade” to introduce students to the concepts of empirical analysis
* A companion web site will offer fuller coverage, including additional suggested design projects