Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering encourages new undergraduates to use their first year as a chance to explore and investigate each of its engineering departments in order to “try on” different career possibilities and see what suits them best. EGR10 (Introduction to Engineering) is a seminar course which provides an exposure to the range of disciplinary and multi-disciplinary engineering career opportunities, and creates a practical context for the remainder of the first-year study. This course is strongly recommended to first year students to aid in the process of intellectual discovery.
In addition to other topics, contained within this course (with a few exceptions), each engineering department has two lectures, the first being a presentation from a Pratt professor and the second, a guest-speaker from industry. Professors discuss curricular options, areas of specialization, and unique research and design opportunities. Industry professionals share experiences in diverse fields such as technical, management consulting, and finance sectors and they describe to students in what ways an engineering curriculum has helped them in their current roles.