Giving students hands-on experience during their first semester of their college career requires a stronghold network that goes beyond the lecture and lab time in the makerspace. Each design team is provided their own mentor to guide their process through engineering a prototype for a real-life client.
Fun Fact: According to data retrieved in 2019, the current FYD mentor profile shows that each mentor has experience in 3 or more areas of component expertise. This means that a mentor can serve as the go-to resource for navigating the design process!
A mentor’s commitment is critical to the FYD programs ability to run a wide range of projects that cover all areas of engineering. To be considered a mentor, a general assessment is completed to understand the individual’s areas of expertise, experience with various project components, and background of interest areas and education. After consideration, the mentor is intentionally assigned to a design team where they can support the project’s primary discipline. The primary role of a mentor is to serve as a role model and facilitate the development of the student's hard skills, as well as their professional behavior.
Our mentors come from a wide range of educational backgrounds:
- Bioengineering
- Biomedical Engineering
- Chemical Engineering
- Civil Engineering
- Computer Science
- Electrical Engineering
- Environmental Engineering
- Fine Arts
- Industrial Engineering
- Information Technology
- Mechanical Engineering
Mentors are invaluable as they realistically assess student’s skills, create an open environment, and propose prompts for the students to create dialogue about the “what ifs” of prototyping. Meeting with the students on a regular basis ensures the team is making progress while continuing to redefine tasks, responsibilities, and the ever-changing schedule of iterative prototyping. Collaborating with mentors fosters opportunities for students to talk about what they’ve researched while practice explaining their project to the general public.
Mentors provide thoughtful input directly to teams working on a project.
Needed areas of expertise:
- engineering
- manufacturing
- business and entrepreneurship