London’s First-Year Engineering Cornerstone Design Expo

Culminating their year-long Cornerstone of Engineering coursework, first-year engineering students at the London campus presented their innovative engineering team projects at the 2025 First-Year Engineering Cornerstone Design Expo.

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The First-Year Engineering program at Northeastern, which includes Cornerstone of Engineering I and II coursework, is beginner-friendly to provide students with the fundamental building blocks of the engineering design process and algorithmic thinking. The goal is to inspire and motivate students by immersing them in an inclusive learning community while providing them with a solid foundation during their first year to successfully continue their engineering studies.

Razieh Jalal Abadi, first-year engineering assistant professor of engineering, strives to integrate the latest challenges and newest developments in engineering into the London campus’ First-Year Engineering program. “Engineering is ever evolving, so we are constantly adapting the Cornerstone of Engineering courses to reflect real-world progress,” says Jalal Abadi.

In the Cornerstone of Engineering I course, students spend the first half of the semester learning the engineering design process, graphical design, programming, and developing algorithmic thinking skills. They then work in teams to apply their newfound knowledge to build and program a robot.

To break down the complexities of programming a robot, the project is structured into three parts. Each step is designed to be increasingly difficult. The first test is to direct the robot in a straight line with a specific length and width. Teams then program their robot to follow a path with predetermined angles. Building off the previous stages, they construct a robot with sensors that can detect walls and follow a random path.

In the Cornerstone of Engineering II course, students learn more advanced material about algorithmic thinking, programming, and graphical design. They apply the skills they gained from the previous semester and the current semester to solve real-world engineering problems and get hands-on experience of the engineering design process. The course also emphasizes ethical reasoning in design and analysis with a focus on ethical theories, professional codes, and emerging micro/macro issues in engineering.

“We teach them the general steps of the design process, which is essential for the algorithmic thinking they need for developing engineering projects from scratch. It’s also important for them to be creative and come up with several ideas they can test, revise, and improve,” Jalal Abadi says. “The team projects help them develop soft skills of how to collaborate with people who have different processes and skills. We try to simulate an authentic environment of what they will experience in the real world.”

Students start by developing a general idea for their project. Teams prepare a proposal, but to gain approval for their design, it has to be innovative, practical, and beneficial to society. To do that, students conduct a literature survey to assess whether their idea has already been produced; they can either pivot their project or improve an established design.

For the remainder of the semester, teams work in London’s makerspace—equipped with various tools and 3-D printers—to produce 3-D assembly drawings, working models, and eventually a prototype. Teams present their prototypes at London’s First-Year Engineering Cornerstone Design Expo.

“We have an expo at the end of both semesters, and there’s an exciting atmosphere at the expo! After a semester of challenging but fulfilling work, students are excited to present their successful projects. And they get to learn from one another and see all the unique designs,” Jalal Abadi says.

This year’s expo took place on April 11, 2025.

Students present their projects at London’s First Year Engineering Cornerstone Design Expo.

Related Faculty: Jalal Abadi, Razieh