Experiential learning in Engineering
By Daniel Sun
The first half of MEMS 5611 (Principles and Methods of Micro and Nanofabrication) is learning about multiple lab techniques. In the second half of the semester, lectures stop and we begin our final project. We learn like researchers. We read scientific literature, planned research with our ideas, and experimented with guidance, not instructions, from the professor. Everything we did built on each other, and the course was incredibly cohesive in content and in work.
-- Xiaodi "Daniel" Sun is a rising senior majoring in chemical engineering and mathematics at Washington University in St. Louis. His teammates on the project were Shane Carr, a rising senior majoring in chemical engineering and computer science with a minor in nanoscale science and engineering; and Yuyang Chris Peng, who graduated May 16 with bachelor's degrees in biomedical engineering and chemical engineering.