@SoofDad
The acronym “FIRE” used in the UMD program misled me. I thought it was a program exclusive to the study of fire and the BS program in FPE. Thank you for the video! FIRE stands for First-Year Research Innovation Experience and it focuses on interdisciplinary studies in science.
This program is an excellent concept which was first developed at WPI in 2007 and is constantly evolving. The project education campus revolution started in the 1960’s. In fact The National Academy of Engineering recognized this program and Kristin K. Wobbe for the Great Problems Seminar (GPS) in 2016 when 1/3 of the first year students were participating (see https://www.wpi.edu/academics/undergraduate) This year’s seminars involves nine different projects where faculty and students work in teams in the first year of studies, but it does not stop there. The IQP and the MQP follow for everyone.
The transition from the classroom lecture format to real problem research is the basis of the entire school’s programs. This involves three different areas of concentration. Actual research motivates. Motivation vastly improves the learning experience. Please see the explanation of this program @ https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/wpi-plan.
This constantly evolving program focuses a lot of attention on seven week off campus project centers in over forty locations around the world with an automatic $5,000 credit to all students to enable participation in these off-campus project centers without the obstacle of additional costs. See https://www.wpi.edu/project-based-learning/global-project-program.
I was not aware that this concept is spreading to other schools at this level of first year involvement. Personally, as a WPI alumnus, I would encourage involvement in these programs anywhere! Check out the entire four year program. The competition is getting tougher. This sort of competition benefits all!
FYI: Olin College is a tutorial project education program. See http://www.olin.edu/