​Kristen Heaton
Engineering 101: First Year Student Seminar
In my first semester as an engineering major at James Madison, I worked with twelve other students under peer mentors to creatively solve problems posed to us by our professors through human centered design. We also learned about the department's values and how to incorporate those values within our learning.
Design for the Team
Constantly emphasized throughout the Madison Engineering program, my 101 team developed our own values as we progressed throughout our projects.
Design for Myself
Design for the Community
One of our projects centered around human design to solve a community issue. My team developed a plan for a food bank that would better serve the Harrisonburg community's needs.
Design for the World
Our last project focused upon aiding Syrian refugees. After brainstorming, my team decided to come up with a plan to redesign and implement shipping containers for those who needed more permanent shelter at refugee camps.
Although not a part of the 101 curriculum, a senior engineering student within the department taught some of my peers and I how to model R2-D2 in SolidWorks. After modeling them, the student had these 3D printed in the 3D printer lab available to student use.