2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The Importance of Hand-on Physics Preparation for a Pre-Engineering Program at Historical Black University College in Maryland: Second-year student as a case study

Adequate physics preparation is vital for any pre-engineering program due to its fundamental
applications for various engineering disciplines. It helps students to comprehend and easily apply
complex methodologies in analyzing and building engineering systems. Therefore, it is important
to investigate the impact of physics preparation for a pre-engineering program at Historical
Black University College (HBCU) in Maryland, USA.
Most student struggles in their various engineering department in the second year of studies due
to low physics preparedness. This can utterly lead to some level increment in inexperienced
engineering graduates.
The foundational concepts like mechanics, optics, electricity, waves, magnetism, and
thermodynamics acquired from physics have a great effect on engineering applicational systems.
Physics students with better hands-on physics preparation can show improvement in their logical
reasoning, mathematical analysis, and critical thinking with a systematic approach to resolving
complex engineering issues.
However, in this paper, we will conduct a proper qualitative and quantitative investigation of the
student’s insight into the real-life activity. The study objective is to evaluate how well hands-on
physics preparation has impacted the willingness of students to pursue engineering career
systems. This investigation will be based on second-year undergraduate engineering students and
will be used as the frontier of knowledge for improving the first-year engineering student.

Authors

Mr. Pelumi Olaitan Abiodun http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4969-9591 Morgan State University [biography]

Pelumi Abiodun is a current doctoral student and research assistant at the department of Civil Engineering, Morgan State University, Baltimore, Maryland. Pelumi got his BSc and MSc degree in Physics from Obafemi Awolowo University, where he also served as a research assistant at the Environmental Pollution Research unit, in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. As part of his contribution to science and engineering, Pelumi has taught as a teaching assistant both at Morgan State University and Obafemi Awolowo University. With passion to communicate research findings and gleaned from experts in the field as he advances his career, Olaitan has attended several in-persons and virtual conferences and workshop, and at some of them, made presentation on findings on air pollution, waste water reuse, and heavy metal contamination.
Dr. Oludare Adegbola Owolabi P.E. Morgan State University [biography]

Dr. Oludare Owolabi, a professional engineer in Maryland, joined the Morgan State University faculty in 2010. He is the assistant director of the Center for Advanced Transportation and Infrastructure Engineering Research (CATIER) at Morgan State Universit
Mr. Samuel Oluwagbenga Inuyomi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1933-7119 Morgan State University [biography]

Samuel Oluwagbenga Inuyomi is a distinguished researcher affiliated with Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria and Morgan State University, Maryland where he has made significant contributions to STEM, environmental science, and public health.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025