ENGR 111 SPRING 2015

FOUNDATIONS OF ENGINEERING II
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION:

See your Course Page for your specific Instructor Information.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:
This course introduces you to the engineering professions through
multidisciplinary, societally relevant content. You will learn how to develop
approaches for comprehending engineering systems and generating and
exploring creative ideas and alternatives. You will be introduced to concepts
in creativity, innovation, engineering fundamentals, and problem solving
methodologies. You will learn, through experience, the process of design
and analysis in engineering including how to work effectively on a team.
Finally, you will develop skills in project management, sustainability, oral
and graphical communication, logical thinking, and modern engineering
tools (e.g., Excel, LabVIEW, MATLAB, CAD, Rapid Prototyping). Successful
completion of this course will enable you to:
1. Describe the engineering disciplines at Texas A&M and the
interrelationships among them as well as know what graduates of at
least three disciplines of engineering do;
2. Individually, or as well as member of a technical team, understand and
apply a structured engineering problem solving process, engineering
fundamentals, basic engineering science concepts and measurement
techniques to model, analyze, predict, build, and evaluate objects of
engineering interest using a design process;
3. Communicate technical information to justify decisions made during
problem solving situations (e.g. design, troubleshoot, or product
selection), written, orally, and visually;
4. Develop algorithmic thinking using structured programming
techniques and implement logical constructs (i.e., sequential
structures, conditional structures, and repetition structures) to
implement simple algorithmic forms of engineering models/problems
using the most appropriate computer tool;
5. Develop skills for cross-cultural communication; and
6. Exhibit a work ethic appropriate for the engineering profession.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS:

You are expected to:

Always use your @tamu.edu e-mail account to send
correspondence between yourself and the teaching team.
Learn how to use your eCampus account (http://ecampus.tamu.edu/)
to access course information, assignments and your grades.
Be an active problem solver, contributor, and discussant in class.
Be prepared and accountable for class by reading the assigned
material ahead of time and be able to answer simple questions over
said material.
ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

Be held accountable for the material that is, or is not, explicitly

discussed in class.
Have a public presence in the class.
Attend class as a community expectation.
Be cooperative with your team and work with them, not compete
against them.
Learn interdependently and complete assignments with your team
and your peers.
Learn to be accountable to your team and have your team accountable
to you.
Rely on and trust, your peers, as well as the faculty and staff to help
you learn the course material.

COURSE PREREQUISITES:
Co-requisite: MATH 150

COURSE GRADING:
Bi-weekly Exams (5) +
30%
Daily Assessments (RAT, CFU, HW, etc.):30%
Project:
Subtasks
7%
Design Notebook
4%
Demo
10%
Presentation
7%
Report
6%
Attend two (2) Departmental Seminars and
one (1) Industry Seminar ++

6%

Administered in Class
100%
The Student Engineering Council (SEC) sponsors the SEC Departmental
Seminars (SEC-DSs) and the SEC Industry Seminars (SEC-ISs). These are
informational events featuring different engineering majors (i.e., the SEC-DSs) and
companies that hire engineering graduates (i.e., the SEC-ISs). You are REQUIRED to
attend two (2) SEC-DSs (one of which must be from a group A department and
one from a group B department) and one (1) SEC-ISs. Advanced registration for
a seminar is required for attendance to count. Failure to attend a seminar for
which you are registered will jeopardize your ability to complete this requirement.
For each seminar you attend you should be prepared to write a 1 page (less than
250 words) summary of the presentation and how it affects your perceptions of
engineering.
++

This course will make extensive use of student teams. As such, homework,
activities, ready assessment tests (RATs), activity check for understandings

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

(CFUs), and project grades may reflect some combination, in part or as a

whole, your individual effort and teamwork. Exam grades will, in their
entirety, represent your individual understanding of the course material. In
general, your final course grade will consist of approximately 70% of your
own individual contributions. You are reminded that learning team
accountability (your accountability to the team and the team's
accountability to you) is an essential element of this course. As such, the
course instructor reserves the right to use: materials submitted by your
team to reflect your individual effort (in the form of a grade); materials
submitted by individuals to reflect your team's effort (in the form of a
grade); materials randomly collected by individuals to reflect your team's
effort (in the form of a grade); the weakest material submitted by
individuals to reflect your team's effort (in the form of a grade); or materials
submitted by pairs of team members to reflect your individual or team effort
(in the form of a grade). This list is not intended to be completely exclusive,
but representative of the possible options.
The following grading scale will be used to determine your semester course
grade:
90% A < 100%, 80% B < 90%, 70% C< 80%, 60% D < 70%, and F
<60%

COURSE REQUIRED TEXTBOOK / BOOK CHAPTERS:

The course has one required textbook:
1. Engineering Fundamentals and Problem Solving, 6th Edition
Authors: Eide, Jenison, Northup and Michelson
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
ISBN-13: 978-0073534916

OTHER REFERENCE MATERIALS:

1. MATLAB: An Introduction with Applications (available through

Amazon.com)
Authors: Gilat
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Higher Education
ISBN: 13: 978-0470108772
2. Chapter # 6 The Mechanical Design Process; Ullman
3. National Academy of Engineering, Grand Challenges for Engineering, available at
http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/, last accessed 08/2013.

OTHER REQUIRED MATERIALS/SUPPLIES:

1. A Flash Drive (1 GB or higher).

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

2.
3.
4.
5.

A Pad of Engineering Paper.

A Mechanical Pencil.
An Eraser
A Scientific Calculator. The calculator can have as many features as
you deem necessary. However, please note that for exams you will
only be able to use the calculators addition, subtraction,
multiplication, division, logarithmic and trigonometric functions
capabilities. Any other capabilities of your calculator will specifically
be forbidden from being used. Please also note, for exams your phone
will not be considered a calculator even if you have a calculator app.

COURSE OFFICE HOURS:

Daytime Office Hours:

Monday 1:00 pm 5:00 pm in EABC 311
Wednesday 1:00 pm 5:00 pm in EABC 311
Friday 1:00 pm 3:00 pm in EABC 311
Evening Office Hours
Monday-Thursday, 6 p.m. 10 p.m. in EABC 311
Engineering BYOD Helpdesk Information
Location EABC Cubicle
Email engr-byod-helpdesk@tamu.edu
Phone 979.862.3671
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. 10 p.m.
Friday 8 a.m. 5 p.m.
Sunday 12 p.m. 10 p.m.

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

TOPICAL SCHEDULE

BY WEEK
Events

Wee
k#

Starting
Date

Topics

1/20/20
15

MLK
Monday

1/26/20
15

2/2/201
5

Intro to
Engineering,
Teaming
Design Process #1,
Systems Thinking,
Algorithmic
thinking
Flow Charts,
Problem Solving
Method

2/9/201
5

Exam 1

2/16/20
15

2/23/20
15

3/2/201
5

3/9/201
5

LabVIEW 1 & 2;
Introduction and
Sequential Flow,
MSP, Graphing
LabVIEW 3: Data
types and
Structures,
Estimation and
Measurement
LabVIEW 4: File
I/O & Sub-VI's;
Design #2
LabVIEW EV3
Tools, Design
Challenge 3
LabVIEW 5: Arrays
and Clusters;
Subtask 1
Spring Break

9
10

3/16/20
15
3/23/20
15
3/30/20
15

11

4/6/201
5

12

4/13/20
15

13

4/20/20
15
4/27/20
15

14

Design #3,
Sketching
ML #1 : Intro;
Orthographics
ML #2: Arrays,
Data Load,
Plotting; Pictorials
ML #3:
Conditionals;
Subtask 2
ML #4: File I/O

Reading
Assignments

Homework
Assignment
s

Project
Events

Eide: Chap.
1&2
Eide: Chap. 3

Eide: Chap. 4

Exam 2

Eide: Chap. 5

HW 1:
Problem
Solving
Method
HW2 :
LV1&2

Eide: Chap. 6

HW 3 : LV3

Eide: Chap. 3

HW 4 : LV4

Assign
Project

Project
Design
Journal

HW 5 :
LV:EV3
Exam 3

HW 6 : LV5

Lieu: Chap. 2

HW7 :
Sketching
HW 8 :
Matlab1

Good
Friday

Gilat: Chap. 1;
Lieu: Chap. 10

Exam 4

Gilat Chap.
2,3&5; Lieu:
Chap. 12
Gilat: Chap. 6

HW 9 :
Matlab2

Gilat: Chap. 4

HW 11 :
Matlab4

Exam 5

Subtask 1
(in class)

Project
Design
Journal

HW 10 :
Matlab3

Subtask 2
(in class)

Project
Demonstrations

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

Project
Demo (in
class)

14.5

5/4/201
5

15

5/8/201
5

Makeup for topics

deferred due to
University
Schedule
Final Exams Begin

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

Project
Report
(eCampus
)
Project
Pres (in
class)

IMPORTANT DATES: (EXAM

AND

PROJECT DATES

ARE

TENTATIVE)

January 20 First day of fall semester classes.

January 26 Last day (by 5 p.m.) for adding/dropping courses for the fall
semester.
March 9 Mid-semester grades.
March 16-20 Spring Break
April 3 Reading Day, no class scheduled
April 21 Muster, no evening activities scheduled
April 21 Last day (by 5 p.m.) to drop courses with no penalty (Q-drop) or
to officially withdraw from the University
May 4 Prep Day, no exams given.
May 5 A Tuesday, but regular Friday classes meet. Prep day, no exams
given. Last Day of Spring classes
May 7-12 Project PowerPoint Presentations.

SEC DEPARTMENTAL SEMINARS

AND

SEC INDUSTRY SEMINARS:

You are required to attend: 1) two (2) SEC-DSs, one of which must be from
Group B departments as defined below; and 2) one (1) SEC-ISs. You must
pre-register for the seminars you plan to attend. Space is limited; failure to
attend 2 SEC-DSs and 1 SEC-ISs, as prescribed, because of space
limitations will not be considered a valid excuse.
SEC Departmental Seminar Groupings
Group A
Aerospace Engineering
Chemical Engineering
Civil & Ocean Engineering
Electrical & Computer
Engineering
Mechanical Engineering
Petroleum Engineering

Group B
Biological & Agricultural
Engineering
Biomedical Engineering
Computer Science & Computer
Engineering
Engineering Technology
Industrial Distribution
Industrial and Systems
Engineering
Material Sciences Engineering
Nuclear/ & Radiological Health
Engineering

Registering to attend the 2 SEC-DSs, the 1 SEC-IS:

Use the SEC DSs & SEC ISs Sign Up link in your ENGR 112 eCampus
course page to sign up for these events. Remember you must sign up to
attend these events in advance, space is limited. For each seminar you
attend you should write a 1 page (less than 250 words) summary of the
presentation and how it affects your perceptions of engineering.
Rules for attending the Seminars:
1. Rules for attending the seminars:
2. You may only attend seminars for which they have registered.
3. You are required to be in business casual attire for Industry Nights, if
you are not dressed properly you will be refused admittance.

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

4. You are recommended to show up 25 minutes early to compensate for

any technological issues that may arise with registration.
5. You must be in attendance for the entire duration of the seminar.
There are no exceptions!
6. You will not be admitted 6 minutes after the start time of the seminar.
7. Once the Seminar or Industry Night has commenced, students are
expected act in a professional manner. If you are asked to leave a
Seminar/Industry Night for unprofessional behavior, your attendance
will not be recorded.

AMERICANS

WITH

DISABILITIES ACT (ADA) POLICY STATEMENT

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination

statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with
disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students
with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for
reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you believe you have a
disability requiring an accommodation, please contact the Department of
Student Life, Services for Students with Disabilities, in Cain Hall or call
845-1637.

ATTENDANCE:
Attendance in class is mandatory. TAMU policies regarding student
attendance/absences are defined in Part I, Section 7 of the TAMU Student
Rules. In addition to those rules, the following policies will apply in this
course:
1. To excuse an absence that falls under rule 7.1.6 (Injury or Illness that
is too severe or contagious for the student to attend class), will
require a medical confirmation note completed by a healthcare
provider with a contact phone number no matter how long the
student is out of class.
2. An excused absence will be required for any day in which a graded
assignment was due or exam was given.
3. There will be no opportunity to makeup in-class or out-of-class
assignments, exams, RATs, CFU or any other graded materials due
to an unexcused absence.

STUDENT RULES:

TAMU Student Rules are posted at http://student-rules.tamu.edu. You

should be familiar with these by now. Any issue not addressed explicitly in
this syllabus will be governed by the Student Rules.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:

An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do. Upon
accepting admission to Texas A&M University, a student immediately
assumes a commitment to uphold the Honor Code, to accept responsibility
for learning, and to follow the philosophy and rules of the Honor System.
Students will be required to state their commitment on examinations,
research papers, and other academic work. Ignorance of the rules does not
ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

exclude any member of the TAMU community from the requirements or the
processes of the Honor System. For additional information please visit:
http://aggiehonor.tamu.edu.
Students are expected to understand and abide by the Aggie Honor Code
presented on the web at: http://aggiehonor.tamu.edu. No form of scholastic
misconduct will be tolerated. Academic misconduct includes cheating,
fabrication, falsification, multiple submissions, plagiarism, complicity, etc.
These are more fully defined in the above web site. Violations will be
handled in accordance with the Aggie Honor System Process described on
the web site.
Please pay special attention to the following paragraph regarding
teamwork (or working collaboratively with others). During this course,
you will be working in teams and as such you are expected, and will be
encouraged, to help each other. This is done because it has been shown that
students learn more effectively while working together. Since course grades
are not curved, there is no penalty for helping someone else. However,
there is, at times, confusion over when it is ok to collaborate with a
teammate (or someone in the course) and when collaborating with
someone else turns into academic dishonesty.
When an assignment specifies that it is:
1. ALL-CLASS Assignment you should feel comfortable talking to
anyone in the course (and working side-by-side with them) about any
aspect of an assignment from gaining conceptual insight to developing
an appropriate model to specifying assumptions to writing out a
solution. If the assignment was to develop some kind of computer tool
model/solution, working side-by-side with other members of the
course to gain conceptual insight, develop logic, outline syntax, and
implement/debug said logic and syntax would be considered
acceptable behavior. In such cases all individuals involved in the
assignment should be appropriately acknowledged in the materials
submitted.
2. TEAM Assignment you should feel comfortable talking to anyone
on your team (and working side-by-side with them) about any aspect
of an assignment from gaining conceptual insight to developing an
appropriate model to specifying assumptions to writing out a solution.
If the assignment was to develop some kind of computer tool
model/solution, working side-by-side with other members of your team
to gain conceptual insight, develop logic, outline syntax, and
implement/debug said logic and syntax would be considered
acceptable behavior. In such cases all individuals involved in the
assignment should be appropriately acknowledged in the materials
submitted.
3. INDIVIDUAL Assignment you should feel comfortable talking to
anyone in the course about an assignment to gain conceptual insight
only. Any act other than having a conceptual conversation, even if
mutually agreed upon, would be considered academic dishonesty. If

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

the assignment was to develop some kind of computer tool

model/solution, working with others to gain conceptual insight would
be considered acceptable behavior. Any act other than having a
conceptual conversation or providing debugging insight, even if
mutually agreed upon, would be considered academic dishonesty.

OTHER EXPECTATIONS, RULES,

OR

COMMENTS:

1. Hand-written work:
All hand-written homework will be submitted on Engineering
Paper.
All hand-written work will be submitted with your name, your team
number and section number printed in the upper right hand corner
of your paper. You should clearly indicate the name of the
assignment and date it is submitted. In addition, you must sign
your work below your name. Your signature indicates that this is
your work and that you have a general understanding of all the
information that is being submitted.
When submitting a team hand-written homework, you should
follow the same rules as stated above, except making sure to
include the names of all the team members that participated. In the
case of a team assignment, the signature of each individual below
his/her name implies that you were an active participant in
preparing the document and that you have a general
understanding of all the information that is being submitted.
Please be aware when submitting a team homework, only one copy
may be submitted. Submitting multiple copies of the same team
assignment will result in a penalty of 5% times the number of
works submitted. Also, please let this serve as notice: A late
penalty will be awarded to a team assignment if submitted late
because a team member fails to act responsibly, even if it was
completed on time.
Unless there is a valid University Excused Reason, any homework
submitted after the due date and time will be deemed late and
NOT be accepted.
All homework assignments are due by 11:59 pm on the Friday
following the week in which they are assigned, unless otherwise
specified by your instructor
2. Computer Tool Assignments:
You need to follow the Code Standard associated with the
particular computer tool to receive maximum credit.
Computer tool assignments will always be submitted using the
appropriate header file that includes your name, your team number
and section ID.
You will always provide an electronic signature (signature: your full
name). The electronic signature indicates that this is your work,

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

10

or in the case of a team assignment that you were an active

participant in preparing the document, and that you have a general
understanding of all the information that is being submitted.
Please be aware when submitting team computer tool assignments,
only one copy may be submitted. Submitting multiple copies of the
same team assignment will result in a penalty of 5% times the
number of works submitted. Also, please let this serve as notice: A
late penalty will be awarded to a team assignment submitted late
because a team member fails to act responsibly, even if it was
completed on time.
Unless there is a valid University Excused Reason, any computer
tool assignment submitted after the due date and time will be
deemed late and NOT be accepted.

3. You will be assigned to a team and will remain on that team until
teams are reformed or the semester ends, whichever comes first.

ENGR 111 Syllabus.v3, Spring 2015

11