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time to get all the data in the real
world,” he said. “Designing an
engine requires using your best
engineering assessment within
your constraints. The senior
design project requires students to
think with a real-world mentality.”
“Cedar v i l l e’s a c ademi c
excellence stands out,” commented
Abraham Vivas ’12, an Electronic
Controls Engineer on the
Dodge Ram diesel engine. “The
classes, the rigorous projects, the
competition opportunities, and
the professors’ expectations match the levels
of more renowned universities and in some
ways, exceed them.”
Senior-level classes at Cedarville would
count as graduate courses at other schools,
Dewhurst contended. Dewhurst earned his
bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate from
Cornell University. “When they go for their
master’s degree, it’s like a review,” he said.
“Former students tell us they feel very well
prepared for graduate school.”
Vivas was part of the Cummins recruiting
team that visited Cedarville last year. One of
the other scouts, who had never even heard
of Cedarville, was pleasantly shocked by the
vast opportunities students have to work
through normal engineering workplace
problems.
“I took a new course onmicrocontrollers
that was just being developed,” Vivas
continued. “I practiced skills that I’m using
at my job every day.”
Students grow in their engineering
confidence by trying, failing, assessing,
and improving, Dewhurst noted. “They see
things that don’t work,” he explained. “They
had to build a boat, and then they went back
and fixed it.”
Call it the Genesis 32 approach to
engineering education. “It’s like Jacob
wrestling with God,” Dewhurst continued.
“They have to wrestle with it till they get it;
that’s what we’re doing here. Wrestle with it
till you master it — that’s a whole other level
of ability. I think our senior design course
captures that.”
Last year’s Solar Boat team struggled with
engine problems during the competition at
Eastwood Lake in Dayton, Ohio. “The team
worked extremely hard last year, but the
motors failed,” Dewhurst said. “The boat
was incredible. We’re considering patenting
our solar panel design, but we didn’t quite
get there.
“We could have taken the boat from the
previous year and the competition wouldn’t
have come close. But it also wouldn’t have
been very educational.”
Kinsinger concurred. “Engineering
is more and more theoretical,” he said.
“Application is going out the window. It’s so
much easier designing on a computer than
actually building something and seeing if it
works or not. It’s a quantum leap difference.
“Employers keep saying they want
experience, teamwork, and hands-on, but
universities aren’t going that direction.
Except for Cedarville.”
Cummins offers challenging, meaningful
work right away to new hires and interns.
“We give them the support they need, but
at the same time, they’ve got a lot of work
to do,” Wenig said. “The Cedarville students
have been very successful.”
Transmitting the Knowledge
And they match their engineering
acumen with written and verbal skills that
would make any English professor proud.
“We force them to present,” Dewhurst said.
“Our [Solar Boat] teamhas won first place for
technical report many, many years. Several
years ago one of the other teams asked,
‘How come Cedarville is always winning
the report?’ One of the judges said, ‘There’s
nothing really wrong with your report, but
if you read the Cedarville report, it is just
so good.’”
All Cummins summer interns, regardless
of their school, give an end-of-summer
presentation. “It’s very easy to pick out the
Cedarville students,” said Wenig. “They
have strong presentation skills and are
very confident in their work without being
arrogant or overconfident. They
know how to lead meetings.
Cedarville grads have no problems
with presentations.”
Students are required to give
presentations in many of their
classes, Vivas remembered,
sometimes before students,
sometimes before faculty, and
sometimes to people who don’t
know the engineering field.
“Communication skills are
extremely necessary in today’s
workforce,” he said.
Coaching at the Core
Another factor that stands apart in
the Cedarville program is the way faculty
members engage with their students —
outside of class as much as in class. “At
state institutions, faculty are committed
to research; graduate students teach the
class,” Kinsinger said. “That’s not the case
at Cedarville. We do research, but our
primary motivation is teaching. That’s a real
distinctive.”
Brown compared the experience of his
Cummins colleagues who attended other
schools. “Not many of them had their
professors’ home telephone numbers,” he
said. “We were expected to actually make
that phone call. But that’s the commitment
Cedarville professors make. That’s a large
part of our success.”
“Professors are genuinely interested in
the students’ learning and development,”
Vivas added. “It is not uncommon to
see professors staying later than usual or
being flexible with their schedules to help
students whose hours don’t match with
their office hours.”
What stands out the most about
Cedarville professors is that they are
interested in more than just academics, but
in the students’ development as a whole.
“Many of my professors gave me advice on
internships, career-related decisions, life
decisions, and spiritual matters,” said Vivas,
“and for that I am truly grateful.”
ClemBoyd
is Managing Editor of
Cedarville
Magazine
.
Abraham Vivas ‘12 and Joshua Brown ‘11 are two of 38 Cedarville graduates now
working at Cummins.
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Cedarville Magazine