ENGR 1420

When choosing one's project, or problem to be solved, at the beginning of the semester, be sure to think carefully about how much time you'll likely want to spend on it (read: less than you think you will). Be sure to communicate with Elzey on anything on the projects that seems unclear and always document your process more than you think is necessary.
Overall a decent experience that helps prepare one for design-oriented engineering.

Elzey has been through a lot and has rich experiences to endow to his students. Consider his advice carefully, because he's mentored many students. This is also the last chance for you to be with the other Rodmans so value it - you will miss them! Also, pick a project and a group you will genuinely enjoy working with. It's a great opportunity to stretch your wings as an engineer and work on a cool project.

I loved this class so much. Meeting the other Rodmans and working on an engineering project taught me so much about the engineering process and how to work as a team. Prof. Elzey is awesome, he responds to emails in a timely manner and is really enthusiastic about engineering. I'm sad he's retiring tho :(
In this course, we got to explore a problem we could solve with engineering, research previous solutions, brainstorm ways to improve those solutions, and prototype a solution of our own. The things we were expected to turn in were Phase I, II, III, and IV reports which corresponded to the different phases of the engineering process. Elzey also had us do random presentation check-ins to keep track of our progress and where we were going with our projects.
Usually, group dynamics isn't a huge problem, since everyone in the class is pretty motivated, but definitely make sure to stay on track of deadlines. Our group met pretty much every week, sometimes twice or three times to assign roles and delegate things. Loved this course a lot though!