One Week at Purdue: Learning to Think Like an Engineer

Program: Purdue University's Seminar for Top Engineering Prospects

Focus: Mechanical Engineering, Design Thinking, and Collaborative Engineering

Highlight: First Place – Roller Coaster Design Competition

When people imagine engineering, they often picture complicated equations, sophisticated software, or giant manufacturing plants.

I spent a week at Purdue University learning that engineering begins much earlier than that.

It begins with a question.

Why didn't this work?

That question followed me throughout Purdue's STEP program.

More Than a Summer Program

Before arriving on campus, I expected the program to teach engineering concepts.

It certainly did.

But what surprised me most was that it also taught a way of thinking.

Every challenge started with a problem instead of a solution.

Instead of being given detailed instructions, my teammates and I were expected to investigate, experiment, test ideas, and improve them through iteration.

It was less about getting the "right answer" and more about developing a better process.

That mindset changed how I approached every activity during the week.

Learning by Building

Throughout the program, we explored engineering through hands-on projects rather than lectures alone.

Every design decision involved tradeoffs.

Should something be lighter or stronger?

Faster or more stable?

Simpler or more precise?

There was rarely a perfect answer.

Engineering often meant finding the best compromise.

That was one of the biggest lessons I took away from Purdue.

The Roller Coaster Challenge

The highlight of the week was our team's engineering design competition.

Our challenge was to design and build a functioning roller coaster while balancing speed, stability, and reliability.

Like many engineering projects, our first design wasn't perfect.

There were moments when the coaster lost too much energy.

Sometimes it failed to complete the loop.

Other times it was simply inconsistent.

Instead of starting over each time, we began asking better questions.

Where was energy being lost?

Which sections introduced unnecessary friction?

How could we improve stability without slowing the car too much?

Every iteration became an experiment.

Every failure became data.

As we refined the design, our confidence grew.

Then came the final competition.

When our roller coaster successfully completed the course and our team was announced as the First Place winner! It was incredibly rewarding.

Winning was exciting.

But what stayed with me even more was realizing that the victory wasn't the result of one brilliant idea.

It came from dozens of small improvements made through careful observation, collaboration, and persistence.

That's what engineering really looks like.

Learning From Other Students

One of the best parts of the program was working alongside students from different backgrounds who approached problems in completely different ways.

Some immediately began sketching ideas.

Others focused on calculations.

Some wanted to prototype quickly.

Others preferred to analyze first.

Watching these different approaches taught me that there isn't just one way to solve an engineering problem.

The strongest solutions often come from combining multiple perspectives.

Beyond the Classroom

Living on Purdue's campus gave me a glimpse of what engineering education looks like beyond high school.

Walking through engineering buildings, collaborating in teams, and talking with instructors made college engineering feel much more tangible.

It wasn't difficult to picture myself spending four years solving problems like these.

That experience made my interest in mechanical engineering feel even more real.

What Changed

Before attending Purdue, I often thought of engineering as designing machines.

After STEP, I see engineering differently.

Engineering is really about understanding why something works and why it doesn't.

The equations matter.

The designs matter.

But curiosity matters just as much.

The willingness to test an idea, learn from failure, and improve it again is what turns a project into engineering.

Looking Ahead

Winning the roller coaster competition was an unforgettable moment, but it wasn't the most valuable part of the week.

The most valuable part was learning how professional engineers approach problems:

1. Observe carefully

2. Ask better questions

3. Test your ideas

4. Learn from the results

5. Repeat

That's a mindset I hope to carry into every future project, whether I'm programming an Arduino, building a robot, or someday designing machines that solve real-world problems.

Engineering Skills Strengthened

Design Thinking

• Broke complex problems into manageable engineering tasks

• Balanced competing design constraints through iterative improvement

• Evaluated tradeoffs between speed, stability, and reliability

Mechanical Engineering

• Applied concepts of energy transfer, motion, and structural design

• Improved system performance through repeated testing and refinement

• Optimized a physical design based on experimental results

Collaboration

• Worked closely with teammates to develop, test, and improve ideas

• Learned from multiple engineering perspectives

• Shared responsibilities throughout the design process

Engineering Mindset

• Treated setbacks as opportunities for investigation

• Used evidence - not assumptions - to guide design decisions

• Embraced iteration as an essential part of engineering

Final Reflection

If someone asked me what I brought home from Purdue, I wouldn't say it was a trophy -even though bringing home first place was certainly memorable.

I'd say I brought home a new way of thinking.

The best engineers aren't the ones who get everything right on the first attempt.

They're the ones who stay curious long enough to understand why something didn't work and determined enough to make it better.