<p>I was accepted into U of I in December and was just invited to apply to the IeFX program. What should I know about this program? I'm a little confused about what it does exactly...
Thank you :)</p>
<p>I have no idea either. I am reluctant to apply because</p>
<ol>
<li>I have to write 2 more essays (haha)</li>
<li>I don’t know if this is actually useful, or if it is just a waste of time making us take extra courses, GPA killer, etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>I was hoping there would be more discussion on this. DS got the e-mail yesterday. He didn’t seem interested, but I personally think it would suit his learning style more that the traditional big college format. I suggest you read the website carefully and then decide whether to apply. I doubt I will be able to get my son to have an open mind about it. (Venting here, trying not to nag too much this semester, since it is last half-year at home.)</p>
<p>BerneseMtnMom: I read everything about it and it looks like ust that ENG 100++ course, which isn’t really essential to learning engineering, and then doing some community-related activities. I don’t really think we’d be missing out on much. However if there is a chance to get closer to profs then it might be worth it…</p>
<p>I’m puzzled. If it’s such a wonderful program, why not make it available to all students?</p>
<p>The letter says “All admitted students can apply” but it also says it will be only be available to “a fraction” of engineering freshmen.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it doesn’t say how <em>large</em> a fraction.</p>
<p>It is “available” for all to apply. It can only take so many (and the how many has yet to be clearly defined but it is a matter of personnel and resources available for the program) and if it gets more applications than it can take then it has to decide who to take and that can depend on the essays, order of applying and anything else and it is not desigend to just be a “high stats” group. It is not a necessary program. If you have heard of UIUC living/learning communities well this is a learning community without the living together side. Only been around in current form since this year (and all who applied got in this year) and ultimately designed to give new freshmen a community (teams) for a project and some classwork that is not just pure engineering, math or science. The name “ieFX” is new for next year and it was called IFoundry before so if you are looking for info on the UIUC site make sure you search for IFoundry and not just ieFX</p>
<p>I am also wondering if apply this program, will need to take more difficult courses? How many freshman will apply this program? They are “high stats”?</p>
<p>As of Friday, when I asked, they have had 86 applicants. The iEFX program is the “new” iFoundry program, if you have heard of that. It was a program started last year which is designed to help engineers do some hands-on engineering in their first few years at U of I. The thing is that at U of I, you don’t do any real engineering until Junior year (electrical engineering is an exception here) so they created the iEFX program to teach engineers some basic engineering concepts. One day a week is lecture and one day is construction (I think). This year, for example, they gave them a circuit board and everybody just made whatever they wanted to - like a car that went forward in the absence of light. They want to fill out 300 spots this year though. This year, there were like 150 spots.</p>
<p>^ So will they take 300 or 150 spots this year? </p>
<p>But if they only have 86 applicants so far…then I guess it might not matter haha.</p>
<p>300, according to the iefx representative at my visit</p>
<p>Yeah, sorry, I just realized my ambiguity of the use of “this year.” I meant for the class of 2013, there were 150 spots. For us, the class of 2014, they hope to expand to 300.</p>
<p>Hey everybody,</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman at the university and I was part of the pilot program (originally called iFoundry) that iEFX came out of. Honestly, I think iFoundry is a way better name than iEFX, but whatever. Since mine was a pilot program, iEFX might be a little different. Anyway, what I pretty much got out of ENG 100++ was this:</p>
<p>It included what was taught in ENG 100, but ENG 100 material was really a small component of it. My ELAs generally covered the ENG 100 material in the beginning of a couple classes, and if we had any questions they were full of good information.</p>
<p>The rest was somewhat like a seminar on various topics related to engineering, but are not necessarily technical. For instance, there’s this idea of the “missing basics”, ie., what engineers don’t learn and why they don’t learn it. ([The</a> Entrepreneurial Engineer: The missing basics](<a href=“http://entrepreneurialengineer.blogspot.com/2009/06/missing-basics.html]The”>The Entrepreneurial Engineer: The missing basics)). It was really a lot of different things that are right now missing from what they call a Cold War engineering curriculum. </p>
<p>On top of that I had two group projects. We were given guidance, but we had a lot of freedom, like anotherazn said. These were actually kind of fun.</p>
<p>I could say something about the community, but I’m no longer a part of it. If you have questions or want me to elaborate don’t hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>enemyunit,
You get close to the professors that work with the program (if you choose to). Being in a major with no professors represented in the program, it didn’t really help for me.</p>
<p>tonyecc,
You only take ENG100++. They have some new pilot courses, but it’s up to you if you want to take those.</p>
<p>Hey everybody,</p>
<p>I’m currently a freshman at the university and I was part of the pilot program (originally called iFoundry) that iEFX came out of. Honestly, I think iFoundry is a way better name than iEFX, but whatever. Since mine was a pilot program, iEFX might be a little different. Anyway, what I pretty much got out of ENG 100++ was this:</p>
<p>It included what was taught in ENG 100, but ENG 100 material was really a small component of it. My ELAs generally covered the ENG 100 material in the beginning of a couple classes, and if we had any questions they were full of good information.</p>
<p>The rest was somewhat like a seminar on various topics related to engineering, but are not necessarily technical. For instance, there’s this idea of the “missing basics”, ie., what engineers don’t learn and why they don’t learn it. ([The</a> Entrepreneurial Engineer: The missing basics](<a href=“http://entrepreneurialengineer.blogspot.com/2009/06/missing-basics.html]The”>The Entrepreneurial Engineer: The missing basics)). It was really a lot of different things that are right now missing from what they call a Cold War engineering curriculum. </p>
<p>On top of that I had two group projects. We were given guidance, but veer from the main course. These were actually kind of fun.</p>
<p>I could say something about the community, but I’m no longer a part of it. If you have questions or want me to elaborate don’t hesitate to ask.</p>
<p>Fascinating talk…is UIUC taking steps to include the “Missing Basics” in the Eng curriculum?</p>
<p>Hey nautical seven, I’d like to know about the community, if you don’t mind sharing.</p>
<p>So anyone know how long these essays are supposed to be? Mine are like 250 words… too short?</p>
<p>250-500 for each one should be fine, since they didn’t specify anything other than “brief”</p>
<p>so what is iefx all about… like an advanced course or something? and is it evaluated alongwith the rest of your applications using your scores,etc. as a criteria?</p>
<p>Apparently they only base it off your iEFX essays</p>
<p>and what is iefx about… are there advanced courses, different learning experience or something?</p>