College of Engineering and Engineering Technology Educator Resources

We'll help your students learn about engineering.

Our faculty, staff and students work hard every day to discover and share knowledge. We invite you and your students to join our community of learning. You'll find information on current engineering news and upcoming events to share with your students, as well as activities to explore with them.

News and Events

Activities

Build your students' interest in and knowledge of engineering and engineering technology with these activities.

When they're done, reward their efforts and encourage them to stay involved with these fun, downloadable NIU CEET graphics. Your students can use them on their phones, tablets and social media profiles. 

Senior Design Projects

Have your students browse our online senior design showcase. It features innovative engineering and engineering technology projects worked on by more than 250 students during the 2019-20 academic year. 

You can have your students complete this senior design worksheet (PDF) to guide them in reporting about their experience.

View senior design projects

Lesson: What Is a Clean Room?

The Microelectronics Research and Development Laboratory (MRDL), at NIU’s College of Engineering and Engineering Technology, also known as the "clean room" fascinates prospective students and visitors to the Engineering Building. It is considered “clean” because of the massive air filters that remove microparticles from the air so that the student engineers and faculty researchers can create microelectronic circuits, microelectromechanical systems, and micro-sensors. The dimension of these devices can be 100s of times smaller than human hair diameter, allowing us to integrate them into portable electronics (e.g. smartphones), wearable devices (e.g. smartwatches) and even into capsule medicines to monitor chemical states inside body. During the development of a device this small, even the tiniest speck of dust or pollen could contaminate the device, rendering it useless. To enter the room, special "bunny suits" must be worn to cover all clothing, hair, skin, and shoes to prevent particles from becoming airborne.

In the cleanest working area, the Class 100 Room, the air contains less than 100 particles with the size of 0.5 micrometer and larger per cubic foot of air, as compared to the air outside the lab, which can contain between 500,000-1 million particles per cubic inch. The MRDL lab's other working areas are Class 1,000 and Class 10,000.

Learn more about the Microelectronics Research and Development Laboratory (MRDL).

Lesson: What Is Engineering?

There are so many kinds of engineering and engineering technology careers. Almost every field and industry have a need for engineering and/or engineering technology. The National Science Foundation has a variety of videos that explain what exactly engineering is, and what different kinds of engineers do.

• Mechanical Engineering
• Robotics
• Mars Rover
• Supermileage