Handicapped Design Projects In A New Engineering Honors Course

As part of a new Honors Program within the Kate Gleason College of Engineering at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), a multidisciplinary design project has been recently introduced as a two-course sequence (1 credit each quarter), taken by honors students during the winter and spring of their Freshman year. Instead of utilizing the design project as a capstone experience, the Honors Design Course at RIT is focused on freshman, to foster passion for product development as early as possible in the undergraduate learning experience. During this inaugural year, students have targeted the handicapped population, consistent with servicelearning objectives for the Honors Program as well as the students’ collective desire to use their engineering skills to improve quality of life. This paper will provide the framework and details surrounding the Honors Design Course in the context of the overall Honors Program at RIT.