Undergraduate Program
General Engineering is home to all first-year Engineering students at Virginia Tech!
The first-year General Engineering program provides students with a rich experience through a hands-on, minds-on coursework, dedicated engineering design labs, and a team of experienced academic advisors to support your first-year journey. Students take our Foundations of Engineering coursework to prepare to become a Hokie Engineer, alongside other courses required to declare an Engineering major, while receiving continuous ongoing support by a team of trained professional advisors who are experts in advising first-year students.
The General Engineering program is housed within the Department of Engineering Education, where we have world-renowned faculty, regarded among the best in the field, who engage in research in supporting student success, motivating students to learn, and understanding pathways into and through engineering education experiences.
General Engineering students working in class
Foundations of Engineering Coursework (ENGE 1215, ENGE 1216, & ENGE 1414): Our foundations of engineering courses introduces general engineering students to the field engineering as a profession, as well as the foundational skills and knowledge they will need to be successful engineering students in their future years at Virginia Tech. Topics covered in these courses include an overview of engineering disciplines and their contributions, introductions to programming and CAD, complex engineering problem scoping and solving, the engineering design process, and professional workplace skills. We look forward to seeing you in class!
General Engineering students working on laptops in class
We have a team of academic advisors dedicated to guiding students through the first-year engineering. Every student is assigned to and acdemic advisor and your advisor is available to help you navigate your college transition, requirements for your intended major, academic policies, campus resources, and more while you are in General Enigneering. We provided help to students through one-on-one advising appointments, email, group advising sessions, online resources and workshops, weekly advising newsletters delivered straight to your inbox!
General Engineering students can find which academic advisor is assigned to them on Hokie Spa under View your General Student Information or in Navigate. Our team and your academic advisor is always ready to help you!
First-Year Engineering Design Labs
First-year students have access to our dedicated first-year Enigneering design labs: the Frith First-Year Makerspace in New Classroom Building and the InVenTs Studio in Pritchard Hall. These labs are designed to support the development of young engineers through hands-on learning, peer mentoring, and authentic problem-solving. Part collaboration and innovation space, part fabrication and prototyping space, and part learning laboratory, the our labs are integrated into the first-year foundations of engineering courses and enable General Engineering students to learn by dissecting, designing, making, and analyzing engineering products.
General Engineering students working in Frith Lab in the New Classroom Building
Read the story of how Frith helps engineering students embrace failure through hands-on projects!
Interdisciplinary Projects (IDProjects) is a course for Virginia Tech undergraduates from any major to work on authentic projects with faculty, industry, community, and student project leaders.
Students from different majors and academic levels join mentored teams of three to six students, where they contribute what they know, learn what the project requires, and collaborate to grow their ability to do team-based work.
Parents and families are key members of every Engineering Hokie's journey here at Virginia Tech! That's why we've pulled together this list of resources to help you guide your student through their first year.
