Engineering

IDEAS Lab

The Innovation, Design, Engineering, and Applied Scholarship (IDEAS) Lab is designed to graduate students with the skills needed to holistically confront challenges found in the study of science, engineering, business, and other areas where creativity and problem-solving skills are essential.

Understanding the global challenges our students will face as they move forward, the IDEAS Lab offers a space for students to connect their academic scholarship to their own questions about how they can contribute to their local community. Students define problems and work collaboratively to develop innovative solutions. A student who completes this program will be ready to solve problems of any kind.

Although I have improved my technical skills in CNC operation, 3-D modeling, and design during my time in the IDEAS center, I have also greatly improved my teamwork and collaborative skills. These skills are arguably more important than the technical skills that I have learned from my IDEAS classes.

Maxwell Rhodes '20

Courses include a full-year engineering program and term courses that focus on civil and environmental design. IDEAS courses also focus on the relationships between engineering, questions of sustainability and a place-based approach.

Highlights from current course offerings include: