Engineers are “applied” in nature. We believe that the unfavorable attrition rate in engineering is due, at least in part, to the difficult (and typically theoretical) science and math courses that students must take in their “engineering core” before they’ve had the opportunity to take some of the “real” engineering courses.  Therefore, InSPIRESS seeks to provide a context for these upper-level math and science courses.  We want to show high school students why they need the upper-level math/science courses, before they actually take them.

Engineering has gotten a bad reputation.  The InSPIRESS teams are presented with real-world, open-ended, engineering problems, and we walk with them through the solution and design process.  We think the best way to get people interested in engineering (and recruit more engineering students), is to introduce it to them when they are young, before they come to the false realization that engineering is hard, potentially scary, and a field devoid of creativity.  We want to show the high school students how fun, exciting, and varied real engineering can be.