Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 1 session / week, 1 hour / session
Prerequisites
None
Subject Description
This course is a first-year discovery class. The subject gives first-year students a unique opportunity to explore the NEET (MIT New Engineering Education Transformation) program while acquiring valuable problem-solving skills. It introduces students to the NEET Ways of Thinking, which are cognitive approaches for tackling complex challenges valued by industry and for thriving in an uncertain and rapidly changing world. Student teams will engage in challenge-based learning in interdisciplinary engineering education via the NEET program threads. Student teams will learn how to apply various ways of thinking to solving these challenges, including practical methods and tools they can later use at MIT and beyond.
Connection with the MIT New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET) Program
This subject is not required to join the NEET program. However, completing this subject affords early application status to the program. Enrolling in this subject does not obligate you to join the program. Passing this subject will give you access to the early application for the NEET program in the spring.
The NEET Program
The NEET program was launched in 2017 to reimagine engineering education at MIT. A cross-departmental endeavor with a focus on integrative, project-centric learning, NEET cultivates the essential skills, knowledge, and qualities to address the formidable challenges posed by the 21st century. Students join NEET in their sophomore year; in the usual four years, they will earn a degree in their chosen major and a NEET Certificate in one of the four threads: Autonomous Machines, Living Machines, Climate and Sustainability Systems, or Digital Cities.
The NEET Ways of Thinking
The course will briefly introduce the twelve NEET Ways of Thinking and the motivation for their inclusion in NEET. The course will focus exclusively on the following NEET Ways of Thinking: Analytical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Making, and Systems Thinking. Each Way of Thinking will be practiced and applied through a case study from a NEET thread.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
By the end of the course, students are expected to (1) understand key concepts about Analytical Thinking, Creative Thinking, Systems Thinking, and Making; (2) be able to relate these concepts to specific methods, tools, and techniques as they apply to engineering design; and (3) be able to apply methods, tools, and techniques they learned to novel challenges. The first and second objectives will be evaluated using preparation assignments with questionnaires; the third objective will be evaluated using application assignments for methods learned and practiced in class.
Course Challenges
In chronological order:
- Formulate a search strategy for a minibot looking for balls on a grid on Scratch
- Design a microfluidic device for drug delivery experiments
- Suggest improvements to the design of a thermal battery transportation system
- Generate and refine ideas for making Cambridge more cycler-friendly
- Conceive and design a method or tool to help first-year students at MIT choose the right major for them
- Cast and mold a wooden figurine in plaster
Course Assignments
There are 22 assignments in total, with details listed below.
- 4 Preparation assignments (individual and out-of-class assignments)
- Reading an introduction about a NEET Way of Thinking and responding to questions about it
- 14 Application assignments (including 13 team assignments and 1 individual assignment)
- Applying a method, tool, or technique learned in class to a given challenge
- 4 Reflection assignments (individual assignments)
- Self-rating on the NEET Ways of Thinking
- Providing real-world examples of exhibiting the NEET Ways of Thinking
This assignment combines both creative and systems thinking.
The challenge posed to students is to design a method or tool for choosing their major or undergraduate degree.
The sequence of Application assignments is as follows:
- Application 1: Formulate a problem statement (team)
- Application 2: Generate ideas based on analogies (individual)
- 2a: Generate prompts
- 2b: Generate ideas (based on prompts shared by the entire team)
- Application 3: Refine your ideas into useful solutions (team)
- Application 4: Describe your system (team)
Application assignments 1, 3, and 4 each include one form, while Application assignment 2 includes two forms. For Application 2, it is suggested that a separate document with links for each team be created.
