Steeped In Engineering

It is a Tuesday morning in late October and a group of college students is on its way to a coffee shop. The group crosses Pacific Avenue and comes to a stop outside the Washington State History Museum. They linger for a few minutes as they wait for the 16 bus to take them to Tacoma’s Three Bridges neighborhood.

There are multiple coffee shops on the campus footprint, but this trip isn’t necessarily about drinking a cup of coffee. The group is part of Assistant Professor Seung-Jin Lee’s T CORE 102, Introduction to Engineering course. “This class introduces students to various concepts in engineering,” said Lee.

The course is designed for first-year, pre-major students. “For a lot of my students this is their first time taking an engineering course,” said Lee. “This course was inspired by a course at the University of California Davis called 'The Design of Coffee' and was developed to create a sense of community and also a support structure for students wanting to pursue a STEM major.”

As it turns out, that cup of coffee so many of us enjoy every morning requires a lot of engineering to make happen. “Coffee production and roasting involve various types of equipment which involve mechanical, electrical and even chemical and environmental engineering,” said Lee. “The way beans are roasted gives us a chance to talk about heat transfer, an important mechanical engineering topic. The way products get distributed involves supply chain management, which is a core aspect of civil engineering.”

Lee and his class made trips to three different coffee shops in Tacoma during the quarter. He also invited coffee shop owners to class to discuss their work. On this day, the class is headed to Lander Coffee on North 21st.

Lander’s owner, Dustin Johnson, meets Lee and the students at the shop. In the back of the building is a small room that doubles as roasting plant. For the next 45 minutes Johnson talks to the class about his business, including where he gets his beans, how he roasts them and what each piece of equipment does.

Madison Maldonado watches attentively as Johnson pours a cup of green coffee beans into a miniature roaster. The machine whirs to life. Madison is planning to major in psychology but took this course because it sounded interesting. “I think it’s cool that we get to explore the city,” she said. “I didn’t know much about engineering beforehand, but the way this course is taught makes it fun and less intimidating so I feel I’ve learned a lot.”

At the end of the 45 minutes, Lee and the class thank Johnson then make the trek back to the bus stop. While on the bus Lee makes small talk with his class to get a sense of how they felt the visit went. “The hope is that some of these students will want to major in engineering,” he said. “If they decided not to, I hope this class at least changes their perspective on engineering and the variety of ways engineers impact the world.”