Course Descriptions

This course introduces both the engineering program at Incarnate Word and the engineering profession by assigning group projects, inviting guest lecturers, and covering engineering topics in decision analysis and professionalism.

Prerequisite: College Algebra or higher

This course will teach the technical skills for engineering design, from planning a design to two-dimensional drawings and three-dimensional computer modeling on the computer. This class is required for engineering majors.

Prerequisite: ENGR 1201 (Introduction to Engineering)

This course introduces the students to the fundamentals of mechanics, including identifying and analyzing forces that apply to bodies and the motions that occur. We study the concepts of momentum and energy, and the laws governing their conservation and transformation. ENGR 2105 is the laboratory component that accompanies ENGR 2305.

Prerequisite: MATH 2312 (Calculus I)

This course covers topics on basic electricity, magnetism, light, optics, diffraction, interference, and modern physics. ENGR 2106 is the laboratory component that accompanies ENGR 2306.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2305 (Engineering Physics I)

This course covers probability theory, descriptive statistics, random variables, discrete and continuous probability distributions, functions of random variables, hypothesis testing, correlation, and linear regression for engineers. The course will incorporate the use of statistical software.

Prerequisites: MATH 2313 (Caclulus II)

This is an introductory course in C programming for math, science and engineering majors. Topics include data types and related operations, floating errors, input/output, control structures, functions, arrays, data structure, files and strings processing. Program design, debugging techniques and good programming practices will also be discussed. Programming exercises and projects will emphasize problems and applications in math, science and engineering fields.

Prerequisite: MATH 2322 (Linear Algebra)

This course is an introduction to engineering mechanics in static systems, involving the description and interpretation of force systems, moments and couples acting on stationary engineering structures; two- and three-dimensional systems of particles and rigid bodies in static equilibrium; free body diagrams, centroids, and moments of inertia.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2305 (Engineering Physics I) or PHYS 2305 (Physics I).

This course covers theory of electric circuits including circuit variables (voltage, current, power and energy) and elements (sources, resistors, capacitors and inductors), Ohm’s law, Kirchhoff’s laws, Thévenin and Norton equivalents, node-voltage and mesh-current methods, sinusoidal steady-state analysis and power calculations.

ENGR 2160 is the laboratory component of ENGR 2360. This course is an introduction to the construction and measurement of electrical circuits. It includes basic use of electrical test and measurement instruments including multimeters, power supplies, and function generators, use of circuit simulation software, interpretation of measured and simulated data based on principles of circuit analysis for DC, transient, and sinusoidal steady state AC conditions. Elementary circuit design, practical considerations such as component value tolerance and non-ideal aspects of laboratory instruments.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2306 (Engineering Physics II) and MATH 2314 (Differential Equations)

ENGR 2363 introduces students to the basic techniques and methodologies for designing and analyzing digital systems and how to apply these techniques to build specific digital circuits. Topics covered include number systems, Boolean Algebra, combinational circuits, programmable logic devices and read-only memories, flip-flops and memory devices, sequential circuits, and various related optimization techniques. 

ENGR 2163: Digital Logic Lab is the laboratory component that introduces students to hands-on experiments with digital circuits of increasing complexity from simple gates to state machines.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2340 (Computer Programming)

This course covers the application of mathematical principles to the analysis of engineering problems using linear algebra and ordinary differential equations. The course also covers the use of software tools to solve engineering problems.

Prerequisites: MATH 2314 (Differential Equations), ENGR 2340 (Computer Programming)

This course introduces numerical techniques implemented in MATLAB for the solution of problems in engineering. The primary objective is to develop the basic understanding of numerical algorithms and skills to implement algorithms to solve mathematical problems on the computer. Topics covered include error analysis, interpolation and curve fitting, and numerical solutions to systems of linear equations, root finding, differentiation and integration, and ordinary differential equations. The course will incorporate the use of MATLAB software.

Prerequisites: MATH 2314 (Differential Equations), ENGR 2330 (Engineering Probability and Statistics), and ENGR 2340 (Computer Programming)

ENGR 3355 covers internal forces and deformation in solids, concepts of stress and strain, analysis of stress and deflection for elastic bars, shafts, and beams, and theories of failure applied to engineering systems.

ENGR 3155 is the lab component that covers experiments on strain-stress relations, deformation and strength in solids and the determination of mechanical properties.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2350: Statics

Materials Engineering is a course that studies the structure of materials, phase transformations and mechanical properties of metals, ceramics, polymers and related materials to understand how they work and can be used in the design and manufacturing of products.

Prerequisites: ENGR 2305 (Engineering Physics I) and CHEM 1301 (Chemical Principles I)

ENGR 3362 Electronics is a 3-hour credit lecture course. Students study the principles of electronic circuits, frequency response analysis, operational amplifier design, diode, and transistor (FETs and BJTs) circuits. Students will also focus on the analysis of the electronic circuits with industry-standard software (MATLAB).

ENGR 3162: Electronics Laboratory is a 1-hour credit laboratory component that accompanies ENGR 3362: Electronics course. Students will develop the principles of electronic circuits, frequency response analysis, operational amplifier design, diode, and transistor (FETs and BJTs) by building circuits on protoboards. Students will focus on the analysis of the electronic circuits and data acquisition by using industry-standard software and hardware, such as MATLAB Simscape, National Instruments (NI) LabVIEW, ElvisMX and MyDAQs.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2360 (Circuit Analysis)

This course covers continuous-time and discrete-time signal analysis, including Fourier series and transforms; sampling; continuous-time and discrete-time linear system analysis with FIR and IIR systems; impulse response, frequency response and system function.

Prerequisites: ENGR 2360 (Circuit Analysis) and ENGR 3330 (Engineering Analysis)

ENGR 3373: Dynamics is a course that studies the effects of loads on particles and bodies.  It includes vector algebra, forces and moments of forces.  It also includes kinematics and kinetics of particles and rigid bodies.

Prerequisites: ENGR 2350 (Statics)

Students will study heat, work, the kinetic theory of gases, equations of state, thermodynamic systems, the laws of thermodynamics, reversible and irreversible processes, the conservation of energy, and basic thermodynamic cycles.

Prerequisite: CHEM 1301 (Chemical Principles I), ENGR 2305 (Engineering Physics I) or PHYS 2305 (Physics I)

This is a course that studies the kinematics, dynamics and synthesis of linkage mechanisms that must be designed and analyzed to perform the desired motion or task. Also includes the principles of cam design. These topics are fundamental in machine design.

Prerequisites: ENGR 3373 (Dynamics)

ENGR 4321: Microcontrollers and Embedded Systems is a 3-hour credit course. Students will study the fundamentals of microcontroller architecture, designing, interfacing, configuring and programming systems with sensors and actuators. Students will focus on sensor signal processing by using embedded C programming and electronics prototyping platforms, such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Beagleboard and ESP.

Students will analyze linear vibrating systems of one degree of freedom with different damping and forcing conditions as well as multi-degree of freedom systems, and engineering applications such as vibration control.

Prerequisite: ENGR 3373 (Dynamics)

Students will learn and apply the basic principles of finite elements, derive the element equations for one and two-dimensional elements, and error estimation. Applications to stress analysis of elastic solids will also be studied.

Prerequisite: ENGR 3355 (Mechanics of Materials)

Students will learn and apply theory of the general case of stress in solids, stress concentration, design criteria and fatigue and its applications to different mechanical elements.

Prerequisites: ENGR 3355 (Mechanics of Materials) and ENGR 3373 (Dynamics)

This course introduces techniques of digital signal processing and application to deterministic as well as random signals. Topics include representation of discrete-time random signals, A/D conversion, D/A conversion, frequency domain and Z-domain analysis of discrete-time signals and systems, discrete-time feedback systems, difference equation and FFT-based realization of digital filters, design of IIR Butterworth filters, window-based FIR filter design, digital filtering of random signals, FFT-based power spectrum analysis.

Prerequisites: ENGR 3330 (Engineering Analysis), ENGR 3364 (Signals and Systems)

This course provides an introduction to the analysis of control systems. The main focus will be on techniques in classical control theory, including root-locus and Bode plots. Students will learn how to transform linear dynamical systems between state-space and frequency domains, and evaluate conditions for stability in each domain. Students will design controllers such as P, PI, PID, phase-lead and phase-lag filters. Concepts of robust control, including tradeoffs between sensitivity and performance, will be emphasized throughout. Applications will range across electrical, mechanical, chemical, biomedical, aerospace and biological systems.

Prerequisites: ENGR 3330 (Engineering Analysis), ENGR 3364 (Signals and Systems)

ENGR 4370: Fluid Mechanics covers fluid properties, fluid statics, energy and momentum, integral and differential analysis of fluid flow, boundary layers, viscous laminar and turbulent flow in conduits, dimensional analysis, drag and lift.

ENGR 4170: Fluid Mechanics Laboratory is the 1-hour credit laboratory component that accompanies ENGR 4370: Fluid Mechanics. This course covers experiments on static fluid pressure, dead-weight pressure test and gauge calibration, validation of Bernoulli equation, determination of buoyant force, and friction in pipes.

Prerequisite: ENGR 2350 (Statics)

This course covers the engineering field of heat transfer, starting with thermophysical properties and heat transfer by conduction, free convection, forced convection and radiation. Rigorous mathematics will be applied to the appropriate phenomena, and empirical rules used with others. Numerical methods to solve problems involving combinations of these modes will be introduced. Heat exchanger design will put the concepts learned to practical use, and other advanced topics including laboratory methods, thermoelectric cooling and heat pipes will be introduced.

Prerequisites: ENGR 3375 (Thermodynamics) and ENGR 4370 (Fluid Mechanics)

ENGR 4180: Senior Design 1 is a one-hour credit course. This course is designed to provide a culminating major engineering design experience that incorporates appropriate engineering standards and multiple constraints and is based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier coursework. Students study the concepts of engineering design process, which includes task scheduling, planning and development of a scope of work for applications in the design phase of a real-world engineering project. Students will focus on application of technical and non-technical skills and knowledge using a multidisciplinary team-based approach for solving real-world engineering design problems related to product and process development. The topics include systematic product development, development of business plans, project management, cost estimation, documentation and presentation, prototyping, fabrication and concurrent engineering. First semester of a two-semester sequence engineering design experience simulating professional practice in engineering.

Prerequisites: The department chair/advisor signature is required.

ENGR 4380: Senior Design 2 is a 3-hour credit course. Building upon the project proposal and conceptual design developed in the Senior Design 1 (ENGR 4180) course, this course encompasses detailed design, implementation and documentation of the project. Students will implement knowledge and skills acquired from going through the engineering curriculum into a culminating experience in the form of open-ended design and build project and deliver a prototype as an outcome considering various real constraints as part of an interdisciplinary team. The topics include a working design of an industrial project using computer-aided synthesis, analysis, modeling and optimization methods that address the project requirements in safety, usability, reliability, environmental and economic constraints, and ethical and social impacts. The second of a two-semester sequence engineering design experience simulating professional practice in engineering.

Prerequisites: ENGR 4180 Senior Design 1

This course will cover a variety of engineering topics that will change from semester to semester. Topics may include studies of construction, design, soils, structures, electronics, surveying, environment, conservation, or other current areas of interest in engineering. This course can be repeated for credit.

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor required.