The goals of this class are to introduce the design process early on in your educational career and teach you how mechanical engineering relates to the "bigger picture." In a classical mechanical engineering curriculum, students first take basic science courses, learn about engineering principles during their junior and senior years, and finally take a capstone design course. The rationale was that students could not design until they learned the basics. This mentality has changed in the past 15-20  years, and there has been a push to involve students in the design process earlier on in their careers. 

IIT has a three course design sequence for mechanical engineers starting in their sophomore year: 232, 332, and 432.

MMAE 232 employs a project-based learning teaching technique. This means that you will learn by doing. I will serve as a guide to the process, but ultimately the more you put into the class, the more you will learn.

The class also serves to help you learn some basic skills that will help you throughout a lot of your future classes. You will learn to use 3D CAD software, which you will use in MMAE 332 and MMAE 432.  You will also learn how to be a better technical writer, which will help you in MMAE 319, 419, and 432 among others.