For Freshmen and Transfer Students

Here is the slide show that was presented at the Freshman Orientation on August 25, 2023.  Please contact Academic Program Manager Mike Bernard at me-academic@jhu.edu with your questions

All times are approximate…

9:30        Assemble in Hodson Hall, Room 213

• 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
Emily Hinton, Academic Advisor

• 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

About Advising Meetings

You will have already met with your Whiting School professional academic advisor, Ms. Emily Hinton, or another advisor, who helped you with first-semester course selection.  You will also meet with your faculty advisor in Mechanical Engineering, who will help with questions on course selection, planning, and mentoring during the 2023-24 academic year. In Fall 2024, academic advising that includes course selection and planning will shift to Ms. Hinton or your Whiting School professional advisor.  The department faculty will continue to offer mentoring services.

This is the current schedule for initial meetings. 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.  Select each professor’s link below to learn a little more about them.  We look forward to meeting you!

Professor Jeremy Brown

Friday, August 25 – Hackerman Hall, Room 119
Small group meetings
E-mail jdelainebrown@jhu.edu

• 3:00 p.m. – Jason Ahn, David Chauca, and Michael Israel
• 3:20 p.m. – Jared Danko, William Goacher, and Richard Tu
• 3:40 p.m. – Bryan Braga, Berenice Contreras, Ryan Garza
• 4:00 p.m. – Gerardo Becerril, Helena DeAlmeida, David Taveras
• 4:20 p.m. – Oluwadamilola Odubona and Ronmer Tiapa

Professor Claire Hur

Friday, August 25 – Zoom https://wse.zoom.us/j/3839363570
Small group meetings
E-mail schur@jhu.edu

• 1:30 p.m. – Pablo Dominguez Grant and Amy Tang
• 1:50 p.m. – Fadwa Abdullah and Antonio Bonillas
• 2:10 p.m. – Kyla Fowler and Samantha McCormack
• 2:30 p.m. – Andrew Beliwine and Arveen Singh
• 2:50 p.m. – Jerry Chen and Kasey Garrett
• 3:10 p.m. – John Kessler and Leonid Kotov
• 3:30 p.m. – Jack Meier

Professor Chen Li

Friday, August 25 – Zoom https://wse.zoom.us/j/96679268488
Small group meetings
E-mail chen.li@jhu.edu

• 1:30 p.m. – Brianna Bledsoe, Christopher O’Brien, Samuel Roszman, Daniel Schendel, and Diana Valentini
• 1:55 p.m. – Sichen Deng, Thomas Huelskamp, Christopher Kiederling, Xingyu Li, and James Molony
• 2:20 p.m. – Heather Ostic, Ariana Sangliwala, Kevin Shull, Bowen Zheng

Professor Vicky Nguyen

August 29, 30, and 31 – 4:00-5:30 p.m. – Latrobe Hall, Room 125
Individual meetings
E-mail vicky.nguyen@jhu.edu

Please reserve a meeting time on this Google Poll to meet with Prof. Nguyen on either August 29, 30, or 31.

Professor Sean Sun

Friday, August 25 – Shaffer Hall, Room 204
E-mail ssun@jhu.edu

• 1:30 p.m. – Ken Ching

Professor Gretar Tryggvason

Friday, August 25  –  Latrobe Hall, Room 106
Small group meetings
E-mail gtryggv1@jhu.edu

• 3:00 p.m. – Sawyer Olson
• 3:15 p.m. – Sebastian Tabares Erices, Audrey Agamloh, Armaan Bjojwani, and Elizabeth Chua
• 3:30 p.m. Linda Boieriu, Alex Colletti, Helena Fountas, and Antony Goldenberg
• 3:45 p.m. – Jason Kang, Lauren Knudson, and Samuel Lihn
• 4:00 p.m. – Kyubin Moon, Chloe Pak, and Joey Souverein

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 “Info 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 a $25 JHU Barnes and Noble Bookstore 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 2023-24 version of the manual.

HOW YOU CAN WIN

Quizzes with all correct answers will receive three chances and quizzes with fewer-than-all correct answers will receive one chance in the drawing for the Gift Cards that will be awarded at the Freshman Orientation on Friday, August 25.

One $25 gift card will be given for every five entries received.  Only one gift card can be won by any entrant.

ENTRIES ARE DUE MONDAY, AUGUST 21!

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.