Welcome to the Engineering Program at South Mountain Community College. We have a small but rapidly growing engineering department that is dedicated to providing students with a quality education that adequately prepares them for the rigors of an engineering program at any university in the country. Due to its close proximity, most of our students transfer to ASU to complete their B.S. Degree in engineering. All of our engineering courses are accepted by ASU, UA, and NAU as well as most other universities in the country. In fact, some of our students are already ASU students but come to SMCC to take their freshman and sophomore engineering courses, because they like our small classes with personalize attention. In fact, the maximum enrollment in each of our engineering courses is limited to 24 students.
All of our engineering courses are designed to promote learning and teamwork, while developing problem solving skills. Unlike many of the freshman and sophomore level engineering courses at universities, our courses are not "weed out" courses. We do our best to help every student succeed, while making engineering fun. In fact, nearly 80% of the students who enroll in an engineering course at SMCC complete the course with a grade of a C or better. However, this does not mean that our engineering courses are easy. Students are expected to attend class and work hard. It would not do our students any good to take courses that were easy to pass but did not adequately prepare them for the junior and senior level engineering courses at a university. Our goal is not only to have the students successfully complete our engineering courses, but to have them finish the courses knowing more than the students completing the equivalent course at ASU.
If you are not sure if engineering is right for you, try taking ECE102: Intro to Engineering Analysis Tools and Techniques. In this 2-credit hour course we discuss the engineering profession, while you learn to use EXCEL software to solve engineering type problems. You will also get to design and build a catapult, and at the end of the semester you will compete against other students in a targeting contest.
With small classes, personalized attention, free tutoring, low tuition, and numerous scholarship opportunities, SMCC is not just a good place to start your engineering major; it is the best place to start!
Sincerely,
Dr. Tim Frank
Biography
Dr. Tim Frank grew up on the west side of Phoenix. After graduating as valedictorian from Agua Fria Union High School in Avondale, AZ in 1985, he attended Baylor University, where he was a dual major in electrical engineering and physics. He graduated 1st in both the Physics & Engineering Departments in 1990 with a B.S. degree, and then went on to attend the California Institute of Technology, and earned a Masters of Science degree in applied physics in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 1998, with his area of research being computing with artificial neural networks. While finishing up his Ph.D. dissertation, he taught computer programming and circuit analysis courses for 2 years within the electrical engineering department at Purdue University's Indianapolis campus. Tim returned to the Phoenix area in the fall of 1999. He taught computer programming, physics, and math courses for Western International University and Estrella Mountain Community College, before becoming the engineering instructor at SMCC in the fall of 2000. Tim has been married since 1990 to Dr. Karen Connally- Frank, who is a physician of internal medicine. They have three daughters, Kristen, Courtney, and Caitlin.
If you would like to contact me, feel free to do so:
In person: Technology Center, room TC212.
Via email: tim.frank@smcmail.maricopa.edu
By phone: (602) 243-8042