2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The transition from high school to college can be very difficult for many freshman students. Freshman engineering students’ academic preparedness, their prior knowledge with respect to engineering design, their prior practices and misconceptions can influence subsequent learning in high enrollment freshman cornerstone design courses. The student perception of design can change as a student moves through the design sequence curriculum with motivational differences between cornerstone and senior year capstone students. Freshman students’ intellectual development is progressive and senior year capstone students and graduate students can help them develop critical thinking skills, deepen their understanding of the design process, and improve their academic performance. It also promotes active learning, as freshman are encouraged to participate in discussions, ask questions, and share their own knowledge and experiences.

This paper presents the various curriculum interventions in a freshman design graphics course through a mentorship model that enhances freshman students’ understanding of the design process, emphasizing the importance of end-users and stakeholders. In the ongoing initiative both cornerstone student teams and capstone design teams work on projects with real-world clients and users to (i) Create an opportunity for senior year capstone students and graduate students to be rewarded for mentoring freshman engineering students (ii) Develop rubrics for student design competencies (System Design, Implementation, Project Management and Documentation competencies) and (iii) Measure student perception of design over time and design competencies from pre-engineer to professional engineer levels. In order to foster collaborative engagement between freshman and senior students: an open-ended, real-world engineering projects, a structure, intervention strategies and tools are being devised. The intervention and structure are to provide a framework to facilitate purpose and meaningful mentor-mentee interaction. In this paper, description of various interventions, pre and post-activity survey results for both the freshman and senior design cohorts and post-activity reflection with free text responses toward the end of the semester are presented. Preliminary results indicate a positive design experience for first-year students with enhanced understanding of the design process, curriculum, and core competencies needed, with over 80% of participants recommending that future students partake in such projects. This work lays the foundation for a long-term longitudinal study to understand further the impact of mentorship to increase undergrad student retention in design / manufacturing track.