Overview
In ENG 15 you create an individualized plan about your goals as an engineering student and future professional engineer and how you will apply what you learned from the class to achieve those goals.
Throughout the course you learn about goal-setting, strengthening your commitment to graduating with an engineering degree, managing your time and learning, developing positive attitudes and behaviors to support your success, and more. The course culminates in a final project where you develop a plan to support your success in each of these areas.
Student Feedback
Instructor Bio
Summer Session 2 Instructor
Fall 2025 Instructor
Jenna Matera
Jenna Metera is a senior PhD student, Teaching Assistant, and Instructor for several undergraduate and graduate courses with UCSD MAE Department and Jacobs School of Engineering. She has taught ENG 15 “Engineer your Success” for four quarters incorporating her experience in the manufacturing industry to provide a well-rounded perspective on what being an Engineer really means. She has also been a Teaching Assistant for MAE170 "Experimental Design", MATS227 "Structure and Analysis of Solids", and MAE254 " Energy Materials and Applications". Jenna has also acted as a mentor in her lab and with the IDEA Center to several undergraduate students simultaneously, propelling their experience in research forward. Jenna's area of expertise in materials science is within the realm of ceramics and metallic materials. Her dissertation is to establish processing techniques to synthesize bismuth ferrite (BFO) with a cubic morphology to be used as a replacement for lead-based ceramics in electronic applications.
Furthermore, she has performed research in the area of Materials Science and Engineering for more than 10 years, has more than 10 conference presentations and one publication specifically on student learning methods in engineering. In addition to that, she is very involved with her community and acts as a resource to those who need it.
In Jenna's freetime, she enjoys hanging out with her dog, Teddy, crocheting, and reading books about nuclear disasters. :)
Dr. Ekaterina (Katya) Evdokimenko
Dr. Ekaterina (Katya) Evdokimenko is an Instructor for several undergraduate and graduate courses with UCSD MAE Department and Jacobs School of Engineering. She has been teaching ENG 15 “Engineer your Success”, ENG 10 “Fundamentals of Engineering”, ENG 20 “Introduction to Engineering Research”, MAE 20 “Elements of Materials Science”, MAE 160 “Mechanical Behavior of Materials”, MAE 266/MATS 252 “Biological Materials and Medical Devices”, and MAE 272/MATS 205 “Imperfections in Solids”.
Furthermore, she has performed research in the area of Materials Science and Engineering for more than 10 years, has about 50 journal publications and conference proceedings, and more than 70 conference presentations. She has also served as a reviewer for more than 15 different engineering journals.
Dr. Katya has been doing rock climbing for about 25 years. :)
Topic & Assignment Examples
Below is a sample of some topics and assignments from ENG 15.
- Engineering Motivation & Career: Explore or reconnect with your motivation to graduate with your degree in engineering.
- Example Assignment: Write a 1-2 page paper on "Why I Want to be an Engineer" by expanding on your top three “rewards or opportunities” of an engineering career.
- Example Assignment: Write a 1-2 page paper on "Why I Want to be an Engineer" by expanding on your top three “rewards or opportunities” of an engineering career.
- Personal Growth: Gain insights about yourself personally and as an engineering student through relevant readings and reflections.
- Example Assignment: Take the provided questionnaire to learn about your preferred learning styles. Then write a 1-2 page reflection about your results. What do the results tell you, and what changes in your behavior do you plan to make based on this new information?
- Example Assignment: Take the provided questionnaire to learn about your preferred learning styles. Then write a 1-2 page reflection about your results. What do the results tell you, and what changes in your behavior do you plan to make based on this new information?
- Time Management: Reflect on your current schedule and activities as well as learn and apply different strategies for time management and prioritizing.
- Student Feedback: “I really liked the 168 hour plan assignment. I think it is very insightful into how a schedule can help, and how to go about setting one up.”
- Example Assignment: Keep a time log of your actual activities for 168 consecutive hours (every hour for one week)
- Final Project: The final project is a personal plan that incorporates everything you learned through the course. You will develop a plan for where a “world-class” engineering student would want to be in all of the areas you studied in the course, where you currently are on each item, and what you will do to move from where you are now towards being the “world-class” engineering student you envision.
- Student feedback: “I like how rather than focusing on tips and tricks on how to succeed as an engineer, this class helps me to take a deep dive along with my peers to discover the fundamentals of essential lifestyle changes, mindsets, and habits that what truly separate the average person from a "world class" engineer. These talks inspire me and reaffirm my passion to work hard and seize every opportunity these four years at UCSD will bring.”