Introduction to Computing in Engineering
As a degree requirement, majors within the Tufts School of Engineering have a computing requirement. Students should check their major/intended major(s) to see how ES 2: Introduction to Computing in Engineering can be used to satisfy the degree requirements. For more details on different majors for particular class years, please visit the Engineering Degrees webpage.
Note: students that come to Tufts with prior programming experience may be prepared to enroll in a second course in computing instead of ES 2; see the Computer Programming Placement Exam page for more information about this option.
Course Information
The Tufts University Course Catalog description of ES 2 is currently as follows: “Computational fluency through common code concepts, data types and data structures, program flow, and algorithmic implementation. Application to engineering projects including mathematical operations, numerical error calculations, and real-world data analysis. Data science concepts exploring data cleansing, descriptive statistics, analysis and visualization of data sets, and modeling and optimization of physical systems through code. Sociotechnical case studies explore the implications of computing and engineering design choices.“
Course Attribute: SOE-Computing
Students may receive credit for either ES 2 or CS 10, but not both.
Students who have previously completed CS11 or CS15 may NOT enroll in ES2.
Recommendation: MATH 32
The content of ES2 is designed to achieve three main goals: (1) Fluency in a computer language, (2) Understand tools for engineering computing, (3) Applying these tools to data analysis, and (4) Implementing sociotechnical analyses. The achieve these goals, the ES 2 course strives to include all of the following key components:
Fluency in a computer language
- – Master basic coding concepts
- – Know common commands and data types
- – Use good code style
- – Plan both small and medium-scale projects
Understand tools for engineering computing
- – Quantify numerical error in solutions
- – Know how to use symbolic math tools
- – Understand matrix/vector calculations
- – Know how to leverage built in help resources
Apply these tools to data analysis
- – Fit curves/models to noisy data
- – Apply descriptive statistics to datasets
- – Work with a variety of data formats
- – Have exposure to modeling physical systems in code
Implementing sociotechnical analyses
- – Evaluate different impacts of computing-based technologies
- – Examine the social, economic, and policy aspects of engineering
- – Recognize and reduce bias in data and algorithms
- – Identify inherent limitations of computing solutions
ES 2 Sections for Spring 2026:
| Mathematica | Matlab | Python |
| none in Spring ’26 | Section 03 (Timko) Section 10 (Hayes) Section 11? | Section 02 (Cross) Section 04 (Carlson) Section 05 (Henderson) Section 09 (Cross) Section 11? |
Section information will be released at end of October during pre-registration advising, once finalized in SIS.
Note: each section of ES 2 meets a required 3x times a week for 75-minutes each class session
ES 2 Section 02: Dr. Jennifer Cross (Language: Python)
– Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10:30am to 11:45am
ES 2 Section 03: Dr. Brian Timko (Language: Matlab)
– Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 12:00pm to 1:15pm
ES 2 Section 04: Dr. Emily Carlson (Language: Python)
– Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 10:30am to 11:45am
ES 2 Section 05: Dr. Trevion Henderson (Language: Python)
– Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10:30am to 11:45am
ES 2 Section 09: Dr. Jennifer Cross (Language: Python)
– Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 1:30pm to 2:45pm
ES 2 Section 10: Dr. Robert Hayes (Language: Matlab)
– Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 1:30pm to 2:45pm
ES 2 Section 11: INSTRUCTOR TBD (Language: TBD)
– Tuesday, Thursday, Friday from 9:00am to 10:15am
Instructor Bios
Dr. Jennifer Cross (Section 02 and Section 09)
Department: Center for Engineering Education and Outreach
Contact Email: Jennifer.Cross@tufts.edu
Bio: Dr. Jennifer Cross is a Research Assistant Professor at the Tufts University Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) where her primary research interests include human-robot interaction with a focus on the educational applications of robotics and supporting diversity in engineering education. She completed her PhD in Robotics within the Community Robotics, Education, and Technology Empowerment Lab at Carnegie Mellon University where she helped to develop the Arts & Bots Program, a creativity-oriented, middle school robotics program using the Hummingbird Robotics Kit.
ES2 Section 02 (M/W/F 10:30am to 11:45am) and ES2 Section 09 (M/W/F 1:30pm to 2:45am) will be taught using the Python programming language for Spring 2026.
Dr. Brian Timko (Section 03)
Department: Biomedical Engineering
Contact Email: brian.timko@tufts.edu
Bio: Dr. Brian Timko graduated from Lehigh University with B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, and from Harvard University with a Ph.D. in Chemistry where he studied semiconductor nanowires and how they could be stably interfaced with living cells and tissue. He completed postdoctoral studies at MIT and Boston Children’s Hospital. During that time, Timko studied nanocomposite materials for cardiac tissue engineering and remotely-triggered drug delivery, and subsequently, he was an instructor in anaesthesiology at Boston Children’s Hospital. Brian Timko’s research interests lie at the intersection of materials science, chemistry, and biology, with a major focus on nanotechnology and nanoscale interfaces between solid-state and biological systems to achieve advances in three interrelated areas: nanoelectronics for biosensing, nanocomposites for tissue engineering, and externally-triggered drug delivery systems.
ES2 Section 03 (T/Th/Friday 12:00pm to 1:15pm) will be taught using the Matlab programming language for Spring 2026.
Dr. Emily Carlson (Section 04)
Department: Electrical and Computer Engineering
Contact Email: emily.carlson@tufts.edu
Bio: Dr. Emily Carlson is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Electrical Engineering at Tufts University, where she was awarded the Tufts School of Engineering Outstanding Contribution to Engineering Education Award in 2021 as a graduate student. Her interest in solar cells and optics led her to join the Renewable Energy and Applied Photonics Lab at Tufts University during her PhD where she designed, simulated, and fabricated optical elements to improve the efficiency of thermophotovoltaics (solar cells that use heat to generate electricity). She received her Masters and PhD both in Electrical Engineering from Tufts University and her undergraduate degrees in Math and Physics from Bard College. She previously taught Python as a BridgeUp:STEM fellow at the American Museum of Natural History.
ES2 Section 04 (T/Th/Friday 10:30am to 11:45am) will be taught using the Python programming language for Spring 2026.
Dr. Trevion Henderson (Section 05)
Department: Mechanical Engineering
Contact Email: trevion.henderson@tufts.edu
Bio: Dr. Trevion Henderson is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering, having earned his PhD at the University of Michigan. He received his MA in Higher Education and Student Affairs and his BS in Computer Science and Engineering, both from The Ohio State University. Henderson holds secondary appointments in the STEM Education program in the Department of Education and in the Institute for Research on Learning and Instruction (IRLI). His research examines how students’ in- and out-of-classroom experiences affect their learning experiences, persistence, and long-term goals in engineering. Focusing on the culture of engineering disciplines, he studies how the beliefs, values, and practices embedded in engineering education shape students’ learning experiences in the discipline.
ES2 Section 05 (M/W/F 10:30am to 11:45am) will be taught using the Python programming language for Spring 2026.
Dr. Rob Hayes (Section 10)
Department: Civil and Environmental Engineering
Contact Email: robert.hayes@tufts.edu
Bio: Dr. Robert Hayes is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO). He completed his PhD in STEM Education at Tufts University with a research focus on when, why, and how students exercise agency in lab science investigations. With Tufts CEEO, he manages an ongoing collaboration with Ke’yah Advanced Rural Manufacturing Alliance and schools in the Navajo and Hopi nations to expand engineering education in K-12; he supports research and development on the Opportunities for Robotics, Building, and Innovative Technology (ORBIT) project to supporting autistic middle school students integrated computational thinking and executive functioning learning; and he teaches a graduate level mechanical engineering course in robotics. Before pursuing education research, Rob developed curricula for and taught coding and making with grades 3-8 in the greater Seattle area.
ES2 Section 10 (T/Th/F 1:30pm to 2:45pm) will be taught using the Matlab programming language for Spring 2026.
INSTRUCTOR TBD (Section 11)
Department: TBD
Contact Email: TBD
Bio: TBD
ES2 Section 11 (M/W/F 9:00am to 10:15am) will be taught using the TBD programming language for Spring 2026.