Current COURSES

CEID courses and curriculum take students beyond the traditional academic experience, encouraging them to work collaboratively to develop creative solutions for the real world. From musical instruments to medical devices, students are exposed to design process through a variety of course topics and themes. Students work with mentors from within and outside of Yale, who act as both clients and experts in the field. Student work in courses has produced patents, publications, for- and non-profit organizations, and above all unique and in-depth learning experiences that move ideas from the lecture hall to the studio, and beyond the classroom. 

ENAS118 - Engineering Innovation and Design

Instructors: Vincent Wilczynski, Larry Wilen

An introduction to engineering, innovation, and design process, students learn select ideas and techniques across six engineering disciplines and apply what they have learned in a team-based final project for a Yale-based client. 

ENAS400 - Making It: Product Design & Entrepreneurship

Instructor: Joseph Zinter

Positioned at the intersection of design, technology, and entrepreneurship, students are introduced to the many facets of product design and development while simultaneously working to conceive and develop a marketable product and business.

past COURSES

ART910 - Screen Space

Instructors: Sarah Oppenheimer, Joseph Zinter

A weekly studio and seminar at the intersection of art and engineering, Screen Space explores how the dynamic architecture of screen and projector can be understood as a site of creative work. Students design and build projection machines that delve into the potential aesthetic language of light, form, color, and motion.

ART912 - The Sensitive Machine

Instructors: Sarah Oppenheimer, Joseph Zinter

The Sensitive Machine is a four-day workshop that explores the homology between human and mechanized gesture. A single gesture will be identified, isolated, analyzed, and then be exaggerated by grafting the gesture onto a mechanical extension. Participants will design and build these bodily extensions. Once designed, participants will then assess the apparatus’s performance as a sensory conduit, investigating how the machine transfers sensation to and from the proprioceptive body.

ENAS344/MUSI371 - Musical Acoustics and Instrument Design

Instructors: Konrad Kaczmarek, Larry Wilen

This course combines the concepts of musical acoustics with the design and construction of musical instruments. Theoretical concepts are supplemented with historical and musical perspectives on instrument design, taking advantage of expert guest lecturers and resources in the Collection of Musical Instruments. The course culminates in the design of novel musical instruments.

ENAS/ENVE360 - Green Engineering and Sustainable Design

Instructors: Julie Zimmerman

This course focuses on the study of green engineering, including key approaches to advancing sustainability through engineering design. Topics include current design, manufacturing, disposal processes, toxicity, benign alternatives, and policy implications.

ENVE410 - Environmental Technology and the Developing World

Instructor: Jaehong Kim

This course applies engineering fundamentals to solve real-world environmental and human-health problems related to water and wastewater treatment, water- and air-quality monitoring and control, subsurface remediation, and hygienic infrastructure. ENVE410 includes a week-long field trip to Nicaragua during spring break to collect data and run experiments. 

 

MENG/BENG404 - Medical Device Design and Innovation

Instructors: Jean Zheng, Joseph Zinter

MENG404 is a design-based course where students tackle real-world clinical needs and conceptualize, ideate, and prototype medical devices that positively impact patients. Faculty from the Yale School of Medicine provide design opportunities and act as mentors throughout the term. 

 

MENG489 - Mechanical Design: Process and Implementation

Instructors: Beth Bennett, Madhu Venkadesan

The capstone course for mechanical engineering, MENG489 focuses on the study of the engineering design process, including concept generation, project management, teamwork, detail design, and communication skills. Student teams implement a mechanical design project with hardware objectives that can be achieved in a term, and a problem definition that allows room for creative solutions.

 

MENG491 - Appropriate Technology and the Developing World

Instructors: Bo Hopkins, Joseph Zinter

MENG491 acts as an introduction to human-centered design through exploration of appropriate technology, a class of solutions that solve a particular need and are technologically, economically, and regionally viable. Student design teams conceptualize, ideate, and prototype technological devices. They then generate plan to deploy that device into the field.