How Tandon’s Introduction to Engineering Course Lets You Start From Scratch

EG is a class that almost every first year student at Tandon takes. It combines technical skills, technical communication and innovation. The class meets three times a week, in lectures where you learn about different aspects of engineering, for example data analysis, project management, computer science, technology transfer. Lectures give you the big-picture view of how engineers approach problems and create impact across different industries. They’re designed to help students see the many directions an engineering education can take. There is also an opportunity to network with researchers, engineering professionals, and other undergraduate students at Tandon.

The Skills Workshops (or lab sessions) focus on the fundamentals: coding, CAD design, circuitry, and optimization. In the lab, students work in small teams to complete hands-on activities that introduce essential engineering skills and concepts. Collaboration is at the base of every lab, and by the end of the semester, you’ll also have learnt how to work and think like an engineer.

Recitation offers a smaller, discussion-based space where students reflect on what they’re learning and why it matters. It’s where the human side of engineering comes into focus: ethics, societal impact, and communication. In these sessions, you’ll practice technical communication by presenting lab findings, sharing feedback with peers, and writing memos and reports. These exercises build the foundation for clear, confident communication, skills that you think you might not need as an engineer, but are at the heart of presenting yourself and your ideas in the technical world.

The Semester-Long Design Project (SLDP) is the centerpiece of EG and the moment when everything comes together. In teams, students design and build a physical prototype that solves a real engineering problem. The project draws on every skill developed throughout the semester: technical to teamwork and project management. At the end of the term, teams present their prototypes to instructors and peers in a final showcase as if it’s a company product pitch.

What still stands out to me about EG is how hands-on it is. It gives even first year students experience in building things from scratch. Even something as small as getting an LED to light up feels like a big win, because it’s proof that what you’re learning in lectures actually works in real life. I still remember the day our servo motor finally turned after nearly forty minutes of debugging code, only to realize that the problem was a single misspelled variable. For a moment, it was frustrating, but that frustration quickly turned into relief and laughter. Seeing something you built finally come to life, no matter how simple, is incredibly rewarding.

The beauty of EG is that it lets you fail safely. You can test an idea, watch it fall apart, and then figure out how to make it better, all with the guidance of your teammates and TAs. For my Semester-Long Design Project, my team built a smart, sustainable birdhouse that provided food, water, and shelter for rarer bird species in the city. You learn so much throughout the entire process, not just about engineering, but about patience, creativity, and working as a team. I was head of electrical for my project, in charge of designing and wiring the circuit and remember spending hours trying to make the solar panel work. My team and I practically lived in the MakerSpace at Tandon cutting and gluing pieces of wood, 3D printing parts, laser cutting panels, and being resourceful with our materials (we had a budget!).

A week before our submission, our Raspberry Pi (the microcomputer that ran our system’s code) stopped working, and we panicked. We tried everything we could think of: new code, new wiring, new hardware. Nothing worked. Then, fifteen minutes before the deadline, one of our lab TAs helped us fix an error in the code, and the system finally came back to life. It was chaotic, stressful, and kind of hilarious in hindsight, but that’s what makes EG so memorable.

Another aspect that makes this class so special is the built-in near-peer mentorship. Every lab and recitation is led by a TA who is an undergraduate student who once sat in the same classroom. They know exactly what it feels like to be a first-year student who’s just starting out with coding or circuitry, which makes the environment so much more approachable. It’s easier to ask questions when the person helping you remembers what it was like to be just as confused a year or two ago. 

Many times, the TAs are figuring it out with you, and that is what makes it so collaborative. It reinforces the idea that you can’t know it all but as long as you’re willing to learn, anything is possible. TAs are there to remind you that mistakes are part of the process and progress is gradual. That kind of support made a huge difference for me when I was a first-year student, and it’s the reason I wanted to become a TA myself. Now that I am able to stand on the other side of the lectern, seeing students’ faces light up when they are presenting their SLDP or explaining the process they went through before their design worked is surreal. I remember feeling the exact same way. Being a TA has been one of the most meaningful parts of my time at Tandon because it lets me give back to the course that built my confidence in the first place.