The ETHOS project melds several interrelated sub projects which embed guided experiential curricular and co-curricular learning. 

Freshman Academy Renovation touches the lives of all first-semester freshmen across engineering majors and in computer science. Guided by the principles of project-based learning and human-centered design, freshman students work together with faculty leaders and near-peer, upper division student mentors to design and create prototypes of potential solutions for the National Academy of Engineering’s Grand Challenges. 

Engineering Moment is a short-form podcast series that fosters a sense of professional identity and social responsibility in students. 

Engineers Engaging Community helps students understand that public engagement is integral to the practice of humanitarian engineering and that engineering does not exist in a vacuum, but instead is part of a larger community discourse. It engages students with public audiences, creating speaking opportunities for them in diverse communities.  

The Good Life engages students with ethical considerations of engineering and technology professions by holding a series of discussions between undergraduate and graduate students.  

Each Ethos sub-project builds upon another, commencing in students’ freshman year, extending through their senior year, and continuing into their professional careers. The sub-projects build students’ individual and collective engineering identities and situate them personally and professionally with humanitarian foci for their future engineering and computer science practice. 

Taken together, the sub-projects provide holistic opportunities for engineering and computer science students to develop technical and other professional skills in full preparation for diverse careers within the engineering and computer science disciplines.

Out of the ETHOS project, the Re-Engineering Engineering Education (RE3) program was created to provide a space in which undergraduate engineering students share their personal stories of identity, growth, and  development with first-year engineering students, faculty, and staff. Responding to research about the efficacy of values affirmation and storytelling in contributing to student STEM success, RE3 is incorporated into the Freshman Academy. Undergraduate storytellers  (Student Trainers) lead sessions in the Freshmen Academy. By teaching others about their experiences,  Student Trainers examine their own learning journeys, engage in the critical process of metacognition, and  become stronger learners. Audience members, particularly first-year engineering students, learn that student voices not only matter, but belong in the engineering space.