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As featured in ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University’s list of ten new things ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University students will see in the 2024-2025 academic year, the College of Engineering and Computing is welcoming its incoming class with a brand new First-Year Experience Lab. The 3,800 square foot lab facility, completed over the summer, is designed to provide incoming students with intentional spaces for collaboration, communication, and community-building as they embark on their engineering and computing academic careers.

CEC students from across engineering and computing majors work together on a project. 

Formerly the site of the College of Engineering and Computing’s dean’s office suite, now relocated to the second floor of Benton Hall — visitors welcome, stop by any time — the First Year-Experience Lab has undergone a $1.1M summertime reinvention to become a two-classroom space united by an interior lobby. While the central interior lobby area is designed for connecting and conversation, the instructional classroom labs on either side are intentionally created for first-year classes CEC 111 and CEC 112.

CEC’s new First-Year Experience Lab is built for collaboration and community-building for engineering and computing students as they adjust to their first year of college life. 

An interactive lab for ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Plan courses

CEC 111 and 112 are Signature Inquiry courses which CEC students take as part of The ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Plan, a core curriculum designed to provide transferable skills rooted in Four Pillars embodying ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University's mission and values.

In CEC 111 and 112, first-year students from across all majors at the College of Engineering and Computing engage in hands-on, interdisciplinary design projects that address societal and environmental challenges. Working collaboratively in teams, these first-year students build community while creating innovative solutions and developing communications skills. The new First-Year Experience Lab is intentionally designed to foster these skills in an inclusive and welcoming space.

CEC students get to know each other during the first week of classes. CEC 111 and 112 are required courses for all first-year CEC students, and feature project-based problem solving experiences worked on by teams.

The CEC First-Year Experience is divided into two courses, CEC 111 and CEC 112. These two courses are taken separately the first two semesters of each first-year student’s academic career at CEC as part of The ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú Plan.

Key Components of CEC 111 and CEC 112

• Facilitates student transition to college by introducing key information, resources, and skills needed to succeed.
• Addresses issues including information literacy, academic integrity, personal responsibility and career development.
• Identifies key campus resources to enhance academic success.
• Students work in teams to apply design thinking principles and computing to solve open-ended problems related to socio-environmental issues.
• Students acquire computational and engineering skills and develop their communication abilities.

Fall 2024 classes began at ÍÃ×ÓÏÈÉú University on Monday, August 26.

Photographs by Scott Kissell, University Communication and Marketing