The engineering design experience is distributed over the entire engineering curriculum. The curricular sequence ensures that there is one-half year of credits devoted to design content, which begins in the first-year course in Engineering and Design and continues through the senior year?s Capstone Design Sequence. The majority of the design work is incorporated into the junior and senior years to ensure that the students have taken sufficient preparatory engineering science courses.

Basic concepts of physics, chemistry, mathematics, and probability and statistics create the foundation on which all engineering education is built. Basic tools of engineering practice, such as graphic communication, computer-aided drafting/design, and computer programming, including applications and simulation, are also required knowledge. The basic engineering sciences, such as statics, dynamics, mechanics of materials, material science, thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, electrical circuits, design of machine elements, and control theory, complete the introductory phase of the program.