Courses

The history and development of engineering as a profession. Engineering disciplines, job functions, educational requirements, transfer school information, academic success strategies, workplace skills, engineering ethics, sustainability principles applied to engineering, current and projected activities in the various branches of engineering.

Introduction to team-oriented engineering design, problem solving processes, and the use of computers in the solution of engineering problems, including commercial spreadsheet applications and analysis/graphics applications. Emphasis on technical communication, teamwork, engineering design and problem solving methodologies. Multiple hands-on design projects.

Introduction to circuit analysis. Determination of the natural, forced and complete responses of zero, first and second-order networks. Standard circuit-analysis techniques including Kirchhoff's Laws, mesh and nodal analysis, Thevenin and Norton's Theorems, generalized impedance and admittance techniques and phasor methods.

An introduction to the construction and measurement of electrical circuits exercising DC, transient, and sinusoidal steady-state (AC) conditions. Use of test and measurement instruments, including multimeters, oscilloscopes, power supplies, and function generators. Introduction to component value tolerance and non-ideal aspects of laboratory instruments. Use of circuit simulation software. Interpretation of measured and simulated data based on principles of circuit analysis.

Principles of visually communicating engineering designs. Topics include technical sketching, technical drawing, engineering graphics and design; 3-D visualization with orthographic projection; dimensioning and tolerancing practices; computer aided drafting/design (CAD) software; graphical analytical methods of solutions to three-dimensional problems. Assignments develop sketching and 2-D and 3-D CAD skills. The use of CAD software is an integral part of this course.

A first course in engineering mechanics: properties of forces, moments, couples and resultants; two- and three-dimensional force systems acting on engineering structures in equilibrium; analysis of trusses, and beams; distributed forces, shear and bending moment diagrams, center of gravity, centroids, friction, and area and mass moments of inertia.

An introductory calculus-based course in dynamics covering kinematics and kinetics of particles, systems of particles, rigid bodies, and systems of rigid bodies. Applications of Newton's Second Law, the Work-Energy Theorem, the Principle of Impulse and Momentum, Coriolis acceleration and impact.

Engineering problem solving using computer programming. Topics include problem solving strategies, algorithm development, structured programming design, the interface of software with the physical world (e.g., the use of sensors or real world data), and the application of numerical techniques.

An introductory course in the fundamental science of materials used by engineers. Emphasis on structure and properties. Some processing and applications of materials is also covered. Finally, a strategy is developed for the selection and use of these materials in engineering design. UC, CSU transferable.

A project-oriented, hands-on course to introduce students to the practices and methodologies used in Engineering and Technology. Areas of focus are electronics, mechanical construction/fabrication and technical mathematics.