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 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 Fujitsu. For this reason, the Linux and Unix Users Group formed a 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.