Chair's Message

Welcome to the Department of Engineering Fundamentals

Dr. Jeff Hieb

The Department of Engineering Fundamentals focuses primarily on the first- and second-year undergraduate education of Speed School’s engineering students.  Established in 2007, the department is comprised of faculty who are passionate about undergraduate engineering education and committed to teaching excellence.   The department is connected to the long history of mathematics education at Speed school through its offering of Engineering Analysis I, II and III, and has more recently developed the two-semester sequence of courses, Engineering Tools, Methods, and Practice I and II, that introduces freshmen engineering students to the profession.

Faculty and staff in Engineering fundamentals work closely with the Office of Student Success and Speed Advising to make sure freshmen engineering students have great first year experience and are ready for departmental courses and co-op as they enter their second year at Speed.  One of the ways faculty achieve that is by always seeking to improve the teaching and learning in their classes through the exploration and use of evidence-based teaching practices.  Recently several Engineering Fundamental’s faculty have led and participated in two nationally funded research projects, one focused on the use of spacing and the other on the use of exploratory learning.  Those projects are continuing to impact the teaching and learning in Engineering Fundamentals’ classes, and they are also contributing to the national dialog on STEM higher education.

Jeffrey L. Hieb
Professor and Chair
August, 2023