NC State receives NSF grant for first-year engineering students

The National Science Foundation ENGAGE program has awarded $10,000 to the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University to develop programs that encourage talented first-year students to continue working toward a degree in engineering.

NC State was one of 10 universities across the country to receive the grant, which will help the College integrate everyday examples of engineering into coursework, improve visualization and engineering graphics skills, and increase interaction between faculty and students. The idea is to keep students interested in the field so they don’t leave engineering programs for other disciplines.

As a result of the award, NC State is for the first time offering a spatial visualization skills course.

“These engineering graphics skills are generally not taught in K-12 courses,” said Lindsey Smith Genut, K-12 outreach coordinator for the Engineering Place outreach program in the College of Engineering. “This course will help students succeed in the field of engineering.”

ENGAGE is an extension services project funded by the National Science Foundation. Its goal is to increase the capacity of engineering schools to retain undergraduate students by facilitating the implementation of research-based strategies to improve students’ classroom and educational experiences.