For Freshmen and Transfer Students

Download the Freshman Orientation slides here.

View the EN.530.310 Reverse Engineering and Diagonostics video here.

All times are approximate…

9:30        Assemble in Shaffer 301

• Introduction / Housekeeping
• Icebreaker

9:45        Greetings – Prof. Gretar Tryggvason, Department Head

9:55        Degree Programs
Prof. Steven Marra, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Mike Bernard, Academic Program Manager

• The Department
• Degree Programs
• Academic Advising
• Research
• Introductory Courses

10:30         Senior Design – Prof. Steve Belkoff

10:45         Advising Manual Quiz Challenge – drawing and prizes

11:00         Freshman Orientation ends

This is the schedule for initial advising meetings with your faculty advisors. Some meetings will be one-on-one where others will be in small groups and one-on-one meetings will be scheduled later.  We will review your course schedule and answer your questions.  Please note the day, time, and location where noted.

If your names does not appear on this list or if you cannot make your scheduled meeting time because of a pre-scheduled activity, please notify Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu.

Select each professor’s link below to learn a little more about them.  We look forward to meeting you!

Professor Jim Bellingham

Friday, August 26 – Malone Hall, Room 153 – small-group meetings
E-mail jbellingham@jhu.edu

• 11:45 a.m. – Alicia Berger, Patrick Dass, Veronica Fabiano, and Cecily Gleave
• 12:15 p.m. – Alexander Lucas Kim, Christian Mayr, and Sania Naik
• 12:45 p.m. – Victoria Poopola, Odalis Sibrian, Aryan Unnikrishnan, and Hyunwoo Zong

Professor Yun Chen

Friday, August 26 – Latrobe Hall, Room 109 – small-group meetings
E-mail yun.chen@jhu.edu

• 1:30 p.m. – Isabella Allen, Matteo Betancourt, Rachel Davis, and Shannon Flaherty
• 2:00 p.m. – Gabriella Goytizolo, Yoonjae Kim, Jillian McNaughton, and Lizbeth Peralta
• 2:30 p.m. – Joel Rentas-Velez, Joshua Sic, Kira Velasco

Professor Dennice Gayme

Friday August 26 – Latrobe Hall, Room 223
Mechanical Engineering Administrative Office
Small-group meetings with Mike Bernard, Academic Program Manager.
Meetings will be arranged to meet with Prof. Gayme on September 1 , as she is on travel on the 26th. E-mail Prof. Gayme at dennice@jhu.edu and Mr. Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu.

• 12:20 p.m. – Darby Bankoski, Everett Button, and Peter Donley
• 12:40 p.m. – Morgan Giardina, Hannah Johnson, Nicholas Llaurado, and Jared Moser
• 1:00 p.m. – Miguel Garcia
• 1:20 p.m. – Arabella Pompay, Zeyn Schweyk, and Kyle Taylor

Professor Steven Marra

Friday, August 26 – Latrobe Hall, Room 123 – small-group meetings
E-mail marra@jhu.edu

• 1:30 p.m. – Abigail Aranda-Lopez, Vanessa Blancas Aramburo, Shivam Dixit, Kevin Galdamez, and Victoria Hernandez
• 2:00 p.m. – Emmanuel Leblond, Elmer Mendoza, Nathan Perlman, and Aidan Rothstein
• 2:30 p.m. – Daniel Collum, Mathew Roesler, Maria Stevens, and Taylor White

Professor K. T. Ramesh

Friday, August 26 – 11:15 a.m. for all students –  Malone Hall, HEMI Board Room
All students will meet together with Prof. Ramesh at 11:15 a.m. and arrange individual meetings there.
E-mail Prof. Ramesh at ramesh@jhu.edu and  Administrative Coordinator, Ms. Dina King at dking65@jhu.edu.

• Ayotunde Ayodeji
• Cameron Bradford
• Matthew Dao
• Albert Doan
• Ronald Garcia
• Mason Holmes
• Aaron Lefkowitz
• Aidan Montano
• Sophia Phelan
• Ariel Sanchez Perez
• Calvin Succi
• Han Zheng

Professor Sean Sun

Friday, August 26 – Shaffer Hall, Room 204
E-mail ssun@jhu.edu

• 11:45 a.m. – Victoria Allen
• 12:15 p.m. – Gerard Matthews
• 12:30 p.m. – Matthew Siu
• 12:45 p.m. – Yueying Wang

Please view these websites for information:

• The University’s Student Orientation page
• Info for new Whiting School of Engineering students
• Mechanical Engineering Academic Advising (including advising manuals and checkout sheets)
• Math Placement Exam (to select your first math class, though not required, it’s strongly recommended)
• The Mechanical Engineering “Top 12” for Undergraduates page with all kinds of info for undergrad students.

Check out and “like” the Mechanical Engineering Facebook page

Check out this welcome letter and other useful information from our Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Steven Marra, the instructor for EN.530.107 MechE Undergraduate Seminar, EN.530.111 Intro to MechE Design and CAD, and EN.530.115 MechE Freshman Lab I.

Take the Undergraduate Advising Manual Quiz Challenge! You could win one of two $25 Amazon gift card!

Visit the Undergraduate Advising Manual Quiz Challenge and answer the questions. Answers can be found in our Undergraduate Advising Manual, which is found on our Undergraduate Advising page. Look for the manual for the Class of 2026.

HOW YOU CAN WIN

Quizzes with all correct answers will be entered into a drawing for the Gift Cards to be awarded at the Freshman Orientation on Friday, August 26. If no one answers all questions correctly, those whose quizzes have the most correct answers will be entered in the drawing.

ENTRIES ARE DUE MONDAY, AUGUST 22!

Don’t delay! Play today and have fun!

Unless you have AP Chemistry credit, please register for the course 030.101 Introductory Chemistry. This 3-credit course alone will fulfill the intro to chemistry requirement.

Neither the Mechanical Engineering nor Engineering Mechanics degrees require the Intro to Chemistry Lab, so it is not necessary to take the lab section of the course.

The Mechanical Engineering department recommends PCs over Macs. This is because many of the software programs used in our curriculum will only run on the Windows operating system. Mac users would have to create workarounds for some programs, usually partitioning their hard drives, which can create other problems.

Our alumni recommend these attributes for your computer:

• RAM: at least 16 GB and preferably 32 GB
• CPU: At least 4 cores and at least 3.5 GHz
• Hard drive: Solid-state hard drive (SSD) with at least 512 GB
• Video card: A dedicated graphics card (e.g. NVIDIA GTX) is better than an integrated card, especially for CAD work with at least 3 GB.
• Monitor: A 14-inch screen is fine, and a large second monitor for home use is ideal.
• Mouse: You must have a wireless mouse for CAD work.

The University offers a discount student rate for laptops and other hardware.

Suggested software:

• Microsoft Office or an Open Office equivalent.
• Solidworks
• MATLAB – you can download a free copy from the University.

Visit the JHU Mechanical Engineering “Top 12 – Undergraduate” page’s section on Computing and select the “Computers and Software” tab for info on this software.