Course Overview

New Visions Engineering mission is to provide a pre-college engineering experience that authentically explores engineering processes and practices, reveals the scope of engineering endeavors, highlights the impact engineers have on society and prepares participants for an undergraduate engineering program. This innovative and exciting New Visions opportunity is hosted in the Materials Science and Engineering department at Cornell University. The classroom is in Thurston Hall, overlooking the engineering quad. The location and available resources allows high-achieving high school students from the TST BOCES districts to explore various engineering careers and the possibilities that they bring.

Successful New Visions Engineering Program candidates must have a strong background in math and science, and a keen desire to integrate the two subjects. Students must be ready and willing to understand that math is a tool that can be applied to solve a problem in physics, and that physics is simply a mathematical way to explain the world around us. That is, it’s real life explained by numbers instead of words. Students should also understand that failure is one of the most powerful learning tools around, and recognize that the right answer is almost never found on the first try. Students should not be discouraged by the hard work necessary to realize that biology, physics, math, chemistry and art do not exist in a vacuum; rather, they all must be used together to achieve a common engineering goal.
Students should be excited, motivated and above all else, be ready to have fun. This program will encourage students to gain the knowledge necessary to make themselves better engineers.

NV Engineering field trip on Cornell Campus

EXPLORE NEW VISIONS ENGINEERING

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Engineering Curriculum

The program has five basic curricular components:

Concurrent-enrollment physics through Tompkins-Cortland Community College. The course is PHSC 211, which is the first in a series of three, calculus-based physics courses that are required for all SUNY engineering majors. The course covers mechanics and heat.
Engineer Your World, which is a program developed by the University of Texas at Austin. The curriculum revolves around a series of engineering design challenges that students must solve in order to develop strong design and engineering skills. Link: https://engineeryourworld.org/
Engineering experiences. The course involves frequent (e.g. weekly) trips to labs on campus, as well as local engineering firms. Previous trips have included: Corning, Lockheed Martin, Incodema 3D, Cornell Lakesource Cooling, Copper Horse Coffee, and many others.
Lab Work. Students will have the opportunity to take on a small slice of a graduate student’s project in order to discover what academic research is like in the engineering fields. Students will present their work at a symposium at the end of the year.
Integrated English, Participation in Government, and Economics courses. The program views all of these subjects through the lens of engineering to make sure that students have the chance to become not only excellent practitioners in their field, but well-rounded citizens who can actively participate in a vibrant democracy