View source for Department of Engineering Education

The '''Department of Engineering Education''' is a non-degree-granting department within the [[College of Engineering]]. Freshmen engineering students are placed into this deparment as General Engineering majors and must wait a year before they are allowed to matriculate into a major. First-semester students must take [[ENGE 1024]], a course which teaches "general engineering skills". Second-semester students may take either [[ENGE 1104]] or [[ENGE 1114]] depending on their desired major. [[Tom Walker]], an associate professor within the department, often "exercises an oversight role" in these courses, but does not always teach them.

==Controversies==
The department has had many controversial practices over the years, most notably the [[vtluug:Tablet requirement|tablet requirement]], in which a tablet PC is required for only two freshmen courses. Some freshmen believe they are forced into buying overpriced, inferior hardware due to the [[University Bookstore]]'s alliance with [[w:Fujitsu|Fujitsu]]. For this reason, the [[Linux and Unix Users Group]] formed a [[vtluug:Petition to abolish tablet requirement|petition to abolish the tablet requirement]]. 

Additionally, several students have complained to the department of unethical teaching practices facilitated by [[DyKnow]], a presentation software that allows the lecturer full control over student computers, by professors such as [[Tom Walker]]; this behavior potentially violates the Virginia Tech Acceptable Use Policy. 

Finally, some students believe that the department detracts from the [[College of Engineering]], citing what they feel to be a lack of sufficiently rigorous or relevant content in the required courses, and have advocated for the department's elimination.

[[Category:Departments]]
[[Category:Engineering]]