What’s your first thought about when your engineering education began?

I recently volunteered to help with our church’s Vacation Bible School (VBS) in Homer. At one point I was working on a Bible verse with a youngster we’ll call ‘Ronnie’, and I asked him to read it aloud. He looked at me and said, “I can’t read.” I was dumbfounded since his peers were reading with very little difficulty. This boy had been told he was finished with second grade and ready for third grade. I wondered, “When do children usually learn to read?” According to a quick Internet search, reading skills can vary greatly from child to child, however, most children start reading at around 6 to 7 years old while some children learn as early as 4 to 5 years old. What does this have to do with engineering education? It depends what you call the beginning of your engineering education. If you can’t read a word problem in mathematics, you’ll never be able to solve the problem. Can you even do the first step in the engineering process of Identify or Define the Problem? Learning to read might be considered the start for some.

I sent a text message to several colleagues and friends telling them I was gathering some feedback for an article. I asked, “What’s your first thought about when your engineering education began?” I was looking for gut level feedback in a quick reply, and I got a variety of great responses. Some have responded about a childhood experience, some with high school, some with the start of college, some with a particular college course or teacher. Several mentioned hands-on experiences.  All their responses strike a chord with me.

A West Point classmate of mine and the President of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), Grant Crawford, remembers it this way. “I think my formal engineering education began in high school when I was taking key foundational courses like Pre- Calc (called Math Analysis back then), Chemistry, Physics, and Mechanical Drafting. They set me up well for West Point. I think my informal engineering education began before that when I used to tinker with our old car, make flashlights with discarded Tic Tac containers, make my own gun powder, and solder electronics projects from a booklet and parts I got at the local radio shack. I learned a lot just messing around with stuff.”

Grant’s answer reminded me of some early ‘engineering work’ I did when I was probably in grade school. My parents asked what all the noise was in my room before supper. I was busy installing eye hooks and string up the sheetrock wall and across the ceiling so I could turn my bedroom light on and off while still lying in my bed. If you’ve ever been to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Virginia, you will recall some of his ingenious engineering work, but he didn’t have a traditional engineering education. I’m told he studied history, science, and the classics. Many say he was considered an expert in many areas: architecture, civil engineering, geography, mathematics, ethnology, anthropology, mechanics, and the sciences.

Morgan McCallister, City Engineer for Monroe, recalled that his engineering education “began on Day 1 of classes [at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston]. I started later in life, so I was ‘head down’ and ‘all business’ until graduation.” That’s what every educator loves to hear!

For David Constant, “the reality of my engineering education came in my junior year at LSU [Louisiana State University] when I started taking core chemical engineering courses. I realized quickly that I needed to work hard to succeed. I’m glad I did after a BS, MS and PhD in chemical engineering and then serving academia for over 36 years. Quite a ride.” David is our Secretary/Treasurer for the PEE Practice Division. [Professional Engineers in Education]

VJ Gopu remembers he was “glad to have been able to gain admission into a highly competitive undergraduate program and hoped to become a well-qualified civil engineer to assist in [his] father’s construction business.” It turns out he “could not join [his] father’s business as planned because of pursuing doctoral studies in the U.S. and then pursuing an academic career.” VJ currently serves as an Educator on our Louisiana Professional Engineering and Land Surveying (LAPELS) Board.

Former Chief Engineer of LA DOTD and President Emeritus of the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying (NCEES), Chris Knotts, shared, “It was the 10th grade. The school guidance counselor called a meeting to discuss careers. I had always liked to take things apart to see how they worked. Getting them back together and working again was a bonus. Math came easy to me, and I was interested in all sciences so engineering checked those boxes.”

I served with Chris Richard on the LAPELS Board, and I recall hearing Chris talking about his relationship with his dad in Lafayette. “Since my father was an engineer, my education began at a very early age. My father would take me to project sites and talked about what he did in my preteen years. I think for me that’s when my education began.” Many may have similar childhood experiences to Chris. Sweet memories.

Hisham Hegab, Dean Emeritus of Louisiana Tech University, “always loved math and science growing up so when I started my first quarter at Tech, I was excited about my first engineering class. It was a freshman seminar class to give students a broad overview of mechanical engineering.”

Kalyn Partin, Civil Engineer and Project Manager out of Lake Charles, recalls, “I was looking forward to an opportunity to be a teacher of math, but having further knowledge to do more than that. I was proud to know that by the end of it, I would have an understanding of the steel construction that my dad has done my whole life and potentially assist him in his practice.”

Melanie Caillouet, our current LES [Louisiana Engineering Society] President, from Houma, “was a biochem major before starting to work in the environmental engineering department. I eventually switched majors. Looking back, my intro class explored why EVEG was needed but didn't really go into what I would be doing after graduation. I think early on having engineers visit the class and give students real life accounts would be really helpful. I also feel that more hands-on projects would be beneficial. I really feel like I passed both my FE and PE the first time I took it because of the hands-on experience I received while working for the department.”

Luke Miller, Past Present of LES, from Alexandria remembers, “Dixie Griffin made us meet him at the outfall of double box culverts under I-20 so that we could break our class into teams. One team was tasked with walking in the culverts to field verify the existing conditions. The next day, we found out the assignment was fake but it made us realize how much our engineering careers would require us to go out in the field and apply principles to solve real world challenges.” I’ve heard students learned a lot of their engineering from Dixie at the Huddle House on I-20 in Ruston, too.

Jim Ellingburg, Past President of LES, from Monroe recalls, “… it started by working on stuff with my dad when I was a little kid. From small engine repairs to welding frames for new deer stands, we did everything in between. I wasn’t learning any engineering principles, but I was learning to look at a problem and see how to fix it.” Problem solving is such a foundational part of engineering education.

Chad Bacas, Past President of LES from Denham Springs was glad to help. “Reflecting on the start of my engineering education, my initial thoughts were filled with excitement and curiosity about the vast field of engineering but somewhat skeptical about the discipline of engineering I started with. I was eager to dive into the rigorous coursework and hands-on projects that would lay the foundation for my future career as an engineer, but I ended up switching disciplines from electrical to civil after a few of my earlier classes.”

What about you? “What’s your first thought about when your engineering education began?” Why not share your thoughts with those around you? Maybe you will recruit and mentor a youngster like ‘Ronnie’ to get plugged in with our incredible engineering profession.