First In Engineering: A Service Learning Approach To Mechanical Design

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR) formed the Donaghey College of Information Science and Systems Engineering (DCISSE) in 1999, and founded the Systems Engineering department. The first four semesters of the program expose students to a broad range of general engineering skills, including CAD, design theory, basic circuit theory and lab techniques. Students are exposed to fundamental concepts in engineering science, such as vectors, forces, dynamics, stress, and strain. The focus areas for the program, in the junior and senior years, are telecommunications and computer systems. Once these areas have been fully developed by May 2003, a control systems track is planned. Students have the flexibility to take several junior and senior level elective courses to either broaden their exposure or to attain depth in a specific area.