First Year Courses

From Rodman Scholars Program

If you are wondering about what you need to do about registering for classes, don't worry. Every Rodman takes the same core classes during first semester. This list includes classes which are exclusive to Rodman Scholars (denoted by the *), as well as classes shared with the entire first-year class of the engineering school:

You will receive an official template for your schedule at summer orientation, which you will use to build your schedule. You will also meet with your academic advisor, one of the Rodman faculty members, who will deliver a package of information to you, and you will discuss any changes you need to make to the standard template, such as any elective spaces you may have due to AP credit.

ENGR 141R/142R

More conveniently known as ENGR, Synthesis and Design will be your first experience with fundamental engineering concepts and design. This two-semester class replaces the standard "Introduction to Engineering" class (ENGR 162) that all first-year engineers must take. Lectures will usually last half an hour to an hour and the remaining time may be spent on group work or other activities.

The curriculum is chosen by the professor to include the introductory principles of engineering and the engineering design process. Topics may include engineering economics, decision-making, time management, elementary statistics, materials and manufacturing, engineering ethics, reverse engineering, and risk analysis. The class will include an introduction to Mathematica, a useful tool for mathematical analysis with more functions than you ever dreamed existed.

The class will also focus on the Engineering Design Project. This project is a design problem which will extend through most of the spring. Topics are influenced by student interest, and the students work in groups. The project will require group organization, managing, and ultimately will result in the construction of a working model or prototype. This project is the signature of Synthesis and Design and often becomes the students' favorite part of the course, often to the envy of their fellow engineering classmates outside of the Rodman program.

STS 200R

This course is taught by the department of Science, Technology, and Society, a unique department within the engineering school whose objective is to provide engineers with strong communication skills and provide a basis for the ethics of technology. The course is designed to cover the non-technical aspects of engineering, such as intellectual property, ethical management, and cooperation/competition between groups. The professor, Michael Gorman, discusses the human cognitive process and the different ways in which people choose to solve problems. The class encourages student-led instruction and group discussions, so participation is an important part of your grade. STS 200R concludes with NanoSim, an end-of-the-semester project that concerns the interaction of society and technology. This team project requires a final report.

PHYS 142R/241R

This is an introductory physics class covering classical mechanics, particle kinematics and dynamics, energy and momentum, rotations, gravitation and gases. It is the same as PHYS 142E, taken by other engineering students later in their second semester. PHYS 142R has a class size of about forty students, unlike PHYS 142E which has about 350 people. Because the class is composed of Rodman Scholars, the information is at a more advanced level and the course moves rapidly. Taking physics a semester early allows Rodman Scholars to begin taking engineering core courses more quickly, opening up space for other courses in the following semesters.

In the second semester, Rodmans will take PHYS 241R, which replaces the 241E class that other engineering students take their second year. This class covers electricity and magnetism, optics, relativity, quauntum physics, and solid-state physics. Both classes exempt students from the physics lab other engineering students take.

CHEM 151

This course is chemistry for engineers, but the class is taught together with CHEM 141, which is for College students. There is a corresponding lab which is required. All first-year engineers without AP credit for chemistry will have to take this class. It is a challenging course, but if you read and do the problems, you can do well. This is the largest class size you will have your first semester (400+ auditorium), so sit near the front of the room so you can hear what the professor is saying. It is important to go to class - the students who don't tend to be the ones upset after the exams. A comprehensive lab period is also required, even if you have AP credit. CHEM 152 is the followup course and can be taken as one of the possible "science electives" required during the spring semester of your first year. It is possible to get a lab exemption if you schedule a lab notebook review and your high school lab period is approved. See Mary Lane in A122 for further questions about this.

Calculus (APMA) Courses

These courses are engineering mathematics, taught specifically by engineering faculty to engineering students (as opposed to the MATH department of the College of Arts and Sciences). APMA stands for Applied Mathematics, which means mathematics applied to problem solving. These courses differ from the College of Arts and Sciences math courses not only in their audience but particularly in their content and difficulty. As an engineer you must take APMA versions. In the first week of school you may take a math proficiency test to make sure that you are in the correct math class, which can be helpful so that you don't get in over your head!

The normal first-year engineer takes APMA 111 (single-variable calculus) during their first semester. If you scored a 5 on the AP Calculus BC exam, you can be placed into APMA 212 (multivariate calculus). APMA 111 will cover the entire range of single variable calculus topics. Note that if you have never taken calculus before, or did not score a 5 on the AP Calculus AB test or on the AB Subscore of the BC test, it is a wise idea to take APMA 109, which covers the basics of differentiation and integration.

Keep in mind that math at the University level is much more challenging than high school math and it might be wise to repeat the last class you took. Remember, almost all engineering majors were good at math and science in high school.

CS 101

This is the core computer course designed to introduce students to the principles of programming. CS 101 uses Java as its programming language. This is yet another required class for all first-year engineering students, and is usually taken in the spring. As with calculus, you may take a placement test during the first week to determine exemption. You may also exempt this course if you scored a 5 on the AP Computer Science A test or a 4 on the AP Computer Science AB test. CS 101 is a prerequisite for many upper-level classes, and many professors expect students to be proficient in Java.

Another version of the class, CS 101E, is for students who took some form of computer science in high school but in another programming language such as C++. This course goes more indepth on some topics because it does not have to spend as much time covering the basics of programming. Take this course if you have had programming experience in the past.

CS 101X is also offered, and is intended for students with little or no computing experience. This course integrates the lab and lecture into one timeslot, so the professor is available to provide copious amounts of support. However, because of its condensed form, some topics may not receive the amount of classroom time they should. The general consensus among Rodman Scholars who have taken this course is that they were not adequately prepared for higher-level CS courses. This course is therefore recommended only for those with (really) no prior programming experience and no plans to minor or major in CS.

Credit Hours

In the engineering school you are required to have a semester schedule of no less than 15 credit hours. Credit hours are a rough estimate of how many hours you will spend in a class per week. For example, if you go to a class for an hour three times a week, it will be a three credit hour course. Laboratory times are slightly different and do not follow a one-to-one ratio of class time to credit hours.

The fifteen-hour requirement is more stringent than the credit requirement for students enrolled in the College of Arts and Sciences, but you have a lot more information to learn in four years, as your courses must train you in limited time to be a successful engineer! The number of credit hours for which you are enrolled will be listed in the information given to you by your faculty advisor. Special permission may be granted by the engineering school dean which will allow you to carry less than fifteen credit hours, but this is a rare exception.

Advising

Entering Rodman Scholars have multiple advisors within the engineering school. When you come for summer orientation, you will be matched with an upperclass Rodman student as an advisor. They will be in contact with you to answer any questions or calm any fears you may have about your first year as a college student. Your faculty advisor will be one of the Rodman faculty members until the end of your second semester, when you chose a major and are assigned an advisor from within your respective field. Students who decide to pursue a minor will have a separate faculty advisor for this as well, and if for some reason you are not happy with your advisor, it is possible to change to another faculty advisor.

AP Credit

Deviations from the basic first-year Rodman class schedule are almost always a result of Advanced Placement (AP) credits. The most common changes to this schedule involve Calculus, Chemistry, and Physics AP credit. If you received a 5 on the placement tests for any of these three subjects you will automatically receive credit for these, although some students may actually decide to enroll in these courses again to ensure they learned all the necessary material.

Credit for AP English is complicated. If you were not a Rodman Scholar, AP English (5) or AP English Literature credit (4 or 5) would replace the STS 101 course required for your first semester. However, all first-year Rodman Scholars will take the 200-level STS course, a unique course taught solely to your incoming Rodman class. If you did not take or did not receive credit (4 or 5) on the AP English or AP Literature exam, you will be required to fulfill the three credit hour discrepancy by taking an HSS elective in a later semester.

A word of advice about moving ahead in the curriculum: the courses you will take in your first year are crucial to the rest of your engineering studies. They are the building blocks of engineering concepts and theory. If you are even the slightest bit unsure of your knowledge in a subject area for which you have received credit, you may want to consider taking the class again. This is especially true for Calculus, Physics, and Chemistry. Remember that the AP exams are designed for every high school student in the country and are not tailored specifically for the University of Virginia engineering school curricula.

If you are fortunate enough to have extra space in your schedule you will be able to (and be required to) fill these spaces with other courses. You can choose classes either within the engineering school to advance in your expected major (if you have foresight that many incoming engineers do not have!), or outside of the engineering school to broaden your academic horizons. A good source of information about courses outside of the engineering school can be found online by perusing the Course Offering Directory, which lists specifics on available classes and their times for the upcoming semester, as well as the Undergraduate Record, which contains all classes offered by all departments in the University and requirements for minors in each.

Also feel free to ask your student or faculty advisor what he or she thinks is the best option. Your faculty advisor will have good suggestions for electives related to potential majors, and your student advisor may be able to connect you with another upperclassman that shares your interests. Remember that they have been where you are now and have had to make the same decisions. If you have problems or questions about issues related to credit you received or course enrollment, you will want to go to the Dean's office in Thornton Hall (Thornton A122) and speak to the secretaries there. They are by far the most informed resources you can use when it comes to credit, course requirements, and the like. It is important that you settle your schedule as soon as possible. You will have plenty of time, and the engineering school is much more gracious than the college of arts and sciences with regard to drop/add dates, but any gaps or overlaps you have in your schedule as you try to decide between classes will only add to the problem as time goes by.

External Links

• Course Offering Directory
• Undergraduate Record