Engineers for all seasons

ASEE Prism, Jan 2003 by Sanoff, Alvin P

OLIN

COLLEGE IS A DIFFERENT KIND OF ENGINEERING SCHOOL. ITS MISSION IS TO TAKE VERY BRIGHT YOUNG PEOPLE AND PREPARE THEM FOR ANY CAREER.

The nation's newest engineering school now stands on what not long ago was a grassy hillside. The Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering-once just an abstraction-has taken concrete form. Four buildings have been constructed, and the first freshman class is in place on the Needham, Massachusetts campus.

With an initial class of 75 students-- 37 of them women-the campus is still relatively uninhabited. But the students many of whom rejected offers from such schools as Harvard and MIT to come to Olin, are enjoying their status as pioneers in a grand experiment in engineering education. They rave about their professors, their dorm, and even the food. "Olin has exceeded my expectations," says Kathleen King. She is one of 29 Olin Partners-students admitted a year ago to help plan the school and who are now members of Olin's inaugural class.

Olin students live in a dorm that, by college standards, is downright luxurious. Freshman Krystin Stafford describes the facility as "awesome." The dorm is composed of two-person suites, each with its own bath, a small refrigerator, and microwave. That's quite a perk given that Olin students pay neither tuition, nor room costs. Whether the college can continue to absorb room costs remains an open question that will be revisited as the school grows in size, but it will always be tuition free. For now, the total out-of-pocket cost of attending Olin is about $7,500 a year, a figure that includes meals, travel, a computer, and books.

While the amenities and the cost of attendance would make many Ivy Leaguers envious, it is the academics that truly set Olin apart. The F.W. Olin Foundation founded the school with the ambitious goal of changing the way the nation's engineers are educated. Olin College, says faculty member Rob Martello, wants to produce "renaissance engineers."

Olin's faculty has taken a measured approach to achieving its lofty goal. So far, only the first two years of the academic program are in place. And while the Phoenix-a mythological bird that rises from its own ashes-is the school's mascot, the hare-legendary for being "slow and steady"-reflects the pace at which the faculty has proceeded.

Before beginning work on the curriculum, faculty members and administrators visited a number of other engineering schools, including Harvey Mudd College, the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, the California Institute of Technology, and some institutions in Europe. They drew on what they had seen and on their own experiences as faculty members at MIT, Vanderbilt, Harvey Mudd, and the University of Iowa to devise a curriculum built around four basic principles. These principles state that to be leaders Olin students must have:

* A superb command of engineering fundamentals and specialized knowledge in their field of major

* A broad perspective regarding the role of engineering in society

* The creativity to envision new solutions to the world's problems

* The entrepreneurial skills to bring their visions into reality

Olin President Richard Miller, former dean of the College of Engineering at the University of Iowa, says that in developing the curriculum the faculty embraced the philosophy that Olin will not produce solely engineers. "What we do," he explains, "is take very bright young people and prepare them for any career. Engineering is just the vehicle for getting them there. It is not a destination."

Even though the last two years of the curriculum remain a work in progress, the faculty has agreed on the conceptual underpinnings of the entire four years. They have divided the curriculum into three components: the foundation, which emphasizes mastering and applying fundamentals in substantial engineering projects; specialization, in which students develop and apply in-depth knowledge in their chosen fields; and realization, in which students bring their education to bear on problems comparable to those faced by professional engineers.

Unlike many engineering schools, where students initially have limited opportunities to apply theory to practice, students at Olin engage in hands-on projects from the beginning. Every semester, students will be involved in projects that are related to their studies. "It is important to have students do real engineering every semester they are here," says Mark Somerville, an assistant professor of electrical engineering and physics.

THE BASICS

The freshman curriculum centers around a 15-- hour-a-week interdisciplinary course that combines the study of math and physics with projects based on the science that students learn. The course has three sections, each with about 25 students. While the academic content of each section is comparable, the projects in each are very different. One section is working on projects involving steam engines, including developing a compressed-air engine for a dragster; another section is creating kinetic sculptures; and a third is devising water-powered machines designed to move the maximum amount of long grain rice up a ramp to a collection bin-this year's design assignment for the annual competition sponsored by the American Society for Mechanical Engineering. "I love the idea that everything is project centered," says freshman Leighton Ige.