Engineering+ goes beyond the typical engineering curriculum and helps students immediately see the impact a career in engineering can have globally and in their lives. The course themes in Engineering+ explore the ways engineers design and influence the world, so you can develop an inclusive mindset through your participation in classes, events, and more. You are introduced to the majors, clubs, support systems and other opportunities in the College of Engineering so you can get the most out of your time seeking a degree.
Whether you know exactly what degree you want or are still exploring your options, you will gain the skills you need to be successful at OSU and beyond. The courses are taught by experienced faculty who can inspire and encourage you to meet your full potential and who are interested in supporting your academic and professional goals.
Upcoming Events
2022 Fall Engineering+ Co-Curricular Event: Keynote with Sue Galatz
- When: Tuesday, October 4, 7-8 pm (doors open at 6:30)
- Where: LaSells Stewart Center, Austin Auditorium and livestreamed for Cascades and Ecampus students
Courses
Over your first three terms, you’ll take three 3-credit courses that explore various intersections of engineering, society, and the environment.
- Each course meets twice per week for one-hour lectures and once per week in a smaller group for a two-hour studio.
- Studios are an OSU-specific course structure that supports students in practicing engineering work in authentic situations - collaborating in small groups on complex open-ended problems with multiple constraints and stakeholders.
Fall 2022
Exploring Sustainability Through the Engineering Grand Challenges (Honors)
Examine the different facets of sustainability (environment, economy, equity) as solutions to our most pressing engineering problems. Explore different engineering majors through the lens of Engineering Grand Challenges. Registration limited to Honors College students only.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Jason Ideker CRN: 18650
Learning From Failure: The Role of Engineering Failures on System Design (Honors)
Explore the role and importance of considering large systems and system interactions when troubleshooting failures in systems. Examples will be used in which large engineering system failures have occurred in our society. Registration limited to Honors College students only.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Toni Doolen & Wade Marcum CRN: 18649
Engineering for People, Climate, and Ecosystems
Examine engineering problems at the interfaces between humankind, climate, and ecosystems — and explore solutions.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Frank Chaplen CRN: 18201
Engineering for a Resilient World
View Oregon State’s various engineering majors through the lens of resilience, while developing a systems perspective on global risks and stressors affecting natural resources, infrastructure, and society.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Meghna Babbar-Sebens CRN: 18214
Engineering Systems for a Better World
Learn how to see the systems all around you — the people, technology, energy, and information — that play a key role in building and maintaining a better world.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Paula de Szoeke CRN: 18226
Engineering for Underserved Populations
Design and evaluate sustainable solutions in energy, water, health, housing, and transportation to help meet basic needs for underserved people around the world.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Nordica MacCarty CRN: 18227
Clean Water – The Key to Health, Prosperity and Social Justice
Explore OSU's engineering disciplines through the lens of clean water and discover how engineering has both created and solved some of the world's biggest water contamination issues that disproportionately affect certain segments of society.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Tyler Radniecki CRN: 18228
Engineering for Health
Discover the roles engineers play in designing and manufacturing medical devices. Learn about some key medical devices, how they work, and how they improve health and well-being.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Christine Kelly CRN: 18229
Energy is Essential
Investigate the interactions of energy, climate, communities, and industry, and what they mean for engineers.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Leila Ranjbar CRN: 18230
Power to the People: Energy Access and Environmental Justice
Learn about the global challenges of access to power and energy infrastructure, and investigate disparities in safe electricity resources. Explore the intersectionality of this problem — with a diverse and inclusive engineering workforce, modern smart grids, and microgrids.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Eduardo Cotilla-Sanchez CRN: 18231
Stone Age to Information Age: Materials that Drive Engineering
Immerse yourself in engineering disciplines with hands-on experiments measuring material properties (mechanical, electrical, etc.) and discussion of how, over the ages, the discovery of new materials has led to advances in engineering and design.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Albrecht Jander CRN: 18233
Sensors in the Wild: Electronics for Health, Environment, and Infrastructure
From wearable devices to smart buildings to global monitoring, explore how sensors and sensor systems are used across engineering disciplines for measuring the world around us.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Matt Johnston CRN: 18234
Automating the Future: Using Sensors for Control
Learn how to solve real-world problems by designing sensors that enable signal processing devices to interact with the world autonomously. Students of engineering will create most future innovations; you will start on this early by exploring how to solve real-world problems by thinking critically, creatively, collaborating with others, and using methods that apply to nearly all disciplines of engineering.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Jason Clark CRN: 19920
Engineering and Nature
Nature has been on this planet for over 3 billion years. Learn how engineers can use nature as inspiration in problem solving.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Sarah Oman CRN: 19973
Trash to Treasure: Engineering a Circular Materials Economy
Our society is facing a convergence of social-justice and environmental issues the likes of which we have never seen before, from production of green-house gases resulting in climate change to the accumulation of waste plastics in our oceans; there has never been a greater need for technological innovation to manage our waste. Discover how engineers of various disciplines are developing new technologies to birth a circular-materials economy that will enhance our society’s environmental sustainability and social equity.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Lucas Ellis CRN: 19990
Materials for a Green World
Examine how materials selection impacts sustainability of the built environment. Explore different engineering majors through the lens of Engineering Grand Challenges.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Brian Baker CRN: 18271 or 20151
Software Design Studio
Experience your first day on the job as a junior Software Engineer, and earn hands-on training in the tools for success. Collaborate to design creative solutions to real-world challenges.
Campus: OSU-Cascades Instructor: Yong Bakos CRN: 17837
Design Across Disciplines
Learn how to thrive in a world faced with multidisciplinary design challenges and opportunities.
Campus: OSU-Cascades Instructor: Rebecca Webb CRN: 17838
Solving Computational Sustainability Problems
Apply problem-solving strategies for developing algorithms to solve computational sustainability problems related to climate, water, energy, agriculture, forestry, and social/human factors.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Jennifer Parham-Mocello CRN: 18262
Design Engineering and Problem Solving
A variety of topics and skills to help you succeed as an Engineer at OSU, with an emphasis on computer science/software engineering. Topics include data, abstraction, design, logic, and documentation/dissemination — the so-called "soft skills" of engineering.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Eric Vogel CRN: 20004 or 20005
Computational Engineering in Daily Life
Gain confidence using core programming concepts, such as variables, expressions, conditions, control structures, functions, and simple 1-d and 2-d structures, to solve real- life problems using computation. Programming Language: C++.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Yipeng Song CRN: 20186
Computational Thinking via Tinkering in Python
Learn programming in Python by taking apart code examples to dissect, reverse engineer, modify, and adapt them. Then, solidify your understanding of the patterns you've discovered by designing new programs from scratch.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Yong Bakos CRN: 20179 or 20181
Winter 2023
Automating the Future: Using Sensors for Control
Regardless of the discipline or application, sensors enable the digital world to learn about and control the real world. In this course you will gain exposure to the wide variety of sensors being used to automate our everyday lives. Work in teams to build your own sensor prototype to collect and analyze key types of data for automation, and learn about the expansive opportunities available at OSU.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Brandilyn Coker CRN: 38713
Energy is Essential
Energy is an essential element of life. In this course, you will investigate energy resources and what they mean for engineers with a focus on nuclear energy, interactions of energy with the environment, climate, communities, and industry. Social and energy justice, energy and quality of life, energy poverty, energy communication and policies, urbanization, industrialization and their effects on rising energy demand, climate change solutions and challenges will be among the topics covered.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Leila Ranjbar CRN: 39053
Human Challenges in Software Design
Explore the social, environmental, and security challenges of designing software and the role of ethics in the engineering design process. While we'll examine these challenges through the lens of software engineering, they are not unique to digital technology. We'll also investigate the National Academy of Engineering's Grand Challenges, making the class appropriate for all engineering majors.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Scott Kerlin CRN: 39041 or 39050
Natural Infrastructure for Climate Resilience
Examine how design can incorporate natural infrastructure (e.g., plants, large wood, dunes, floodplains) to reduce risk of flooding, erosion, and rising temperatures in river and coastal environments. Design calculations, studios, and analyses will emphasize energy dissipation and climate resilience.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Desiree Tullos CRN: 37955
Real Engineering Problems with Simple Solutions
Explore various topics in engineering (landslides, aquifer contamination, traffic signal timing, pumps, dams, coastal harbors, etc.) by making important predictions and design decisions based on simple concepts and formulas. Sharpen your communication and professional development skills through group-oriented learning; and start building skills to find a job or internship.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Jeffrey Knowles CRN: 37960
Engineering for a Distributed Food Production Chain
Smart, distributed food production requires solving chemical, mechanical, electronical, and computational problems. Learn how to address these challenges to help provide reliable and tasty food production in urban environments.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Matthew Shuman CRN: 37965
Our Energy Future: Dessign, Sustainability and Society
Explore emerging and green energy technologies through engineering design principles, sustainability considerations, and societal impacts. Topics will include lithium mining, nuclear energy, solar and much more. Design a technological solution for our energy future, and explore your career options.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Natasha Mallette CRN: 37970
Thinking and Working as a Product Design Engineer
Learn methods and processes to design products that satisfy human needs in a technologically, economically, and environmentally viable ways.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Andy Dong CRN: 37975
Inclusive Engineering and Strategic Planning
Explore emerging and green energy technologies through engineering design principles, sustainability considerations, and societal impacts.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Ingrid Scheel CRN: 37980
Thinking and Working as a Product Design Engineer
Learn methods and processes to design products that satisfy human needs in a technologically, economically, and environmentally viable way.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Christopher Hoyle CRN: 37985
Putting People First: Human Centered Design
Apply design tools and techniques in a manner that considers people first. Start to think about how people interpret, use, maintain, and live with your product. Learn how to involve people throughout the design process.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Anthony Nix CRN: 37990
Engineering Systems for a Better World
Learn how to see the systems all around you — the people, technology, energy, and information — that play a key role in building and maintaining a better world.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Sami Al-Abdrabbuh CRN: 37995 & 38005
Designing Systems for a Better World
Explore the design and engineering of systems — involving people, technology, energy, and information — that play a key role in building and maintaining a better world. Design and build models of real world systems using discrete event simulation software and explore the impacts of making changes.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Paula De Szoeke CRN: 38000
Fresh Water for the Present and Future
Learn organized problem-solving and a variety of computational tools as we look at the supply and demand of water in the home, community, country, and planet. Work in teams to perform, check, and present engineering calculations as we examine ways to meet the growing demand for clean water.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Jonathan Istok CRN: 39068 & 39094
Applied Engineering Thinking
Investigate engineered systems of their your choice (Examples include wastewater treatment, cellulosic biofuel production, and CRISPR) while applying the research-based engineering thinking techniques you’ll learn in the course. We explore engineering as a profession, culture and way of thinking.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Devlin Montfort CRN: 40044
The Science, Engineering and Societal Impact of Nanotechnology
Learn to apply and evaluate nanotechnology solutions to today’s engineering grand challenges through student-driven exploration. This course surveys nanomaterial properties, manufacturing methods, characterization methods, with consideration of their impacts on health and safety.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Stacey Harper CRN: 40041
Fresh Water for the Present and Future
Learn organized problem-solving and a variety of computational tools as we look at the supply and demand of water in the home, community, country, and planet. Work in teams to perform, check, and present engineering calculations as we examine ways to meet the growing demand for clean water.
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Azad Dazaea CRN: 40594
Foundations of Engineering and Computer Science
Explore foundational engineering concepts such as design principles, usability, problem solving, computational thinking, and logic. Deepen your knowledge of Computer Science (CS) & Software Engineering through overviews and Boolean algebra operations using truth tables, digital circuit diagrams, and introductory Python. Boost your teamwork, communication, and technical writing skills by developing and testing software and researching CS topics in a group, and start building skills to find a job.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Eric Vogel CRN: 38255
Our Embedded World
Learn about the embedded systems that control the devices and systems that make up our world. Gain familiarity with basic electronic circuits, develop your algorithmic thinking ability, and apply these concepts to build and program a microcontroller-based system.
Campus: Cascades Instructor: Kyle Webb CRN: 38427
Computational Engineering in Daily Life
Gain confidence using core programming concepts, such as variables, expressions, conditions, control structures, functions, and simple 1-d and 2-d structures, to solve real-life problems using computations.
Programming language: C++
Campus: Corvallis Instructor: Yipeng Song CRN: 38447 or 39043
Computational Thinking via Tinkering in Python
Learn programming in Python by taking apart code examples to dissect, reverse-engineer, modify, and adapt them. Then, solidify your understanding of the patterns you’ve discovered by designing new programs from scratch.
Campus: Ecampus Instructor: Yong Bakos CRN: 40406 or 40407
Spring 2023
Events
Throughout the year, Engineering+ offers events and activities on subjects like career exploration, professional development, community-building, and connecting with alumni and industry — all designed to complement your coursework and help you thrive. All engineering students of all years and majors, including first-year students, are highly encouraged to attend these events.
People
We are here to help. Reach out with any questions or to learn more.
Natasha Mallette
Director of Engineering+
natasha.mallette@oregonstate.edu
