Results of client based freshman design projects

The First-Year Projects course at the University of Colorado, USA, is maturing into a well developed program with its own philosophy. One facet of some sections of the course is the use of client-based design projects to introduce the students to the realities of engineering, including the complete design cycle, teamwork, communication within the group and with the client and time management. The course appears to help in the retention of engineering students, and provides motivation for the students in their core engineering courses. The success of the course at meeting these goals has been observed in writing assignments given to the students; this paper presents a number of these observations and additional comments on the course.