Quadrivium Engineering & Design

Quadrivium Engineering and Design offers several engineering, design and computer science courses. The courses are designed following practices suggested by the pre-college engineering and computer science education research, and by considering the newest educational technologies and the emerging careers in these fields.

Engineering and Design at The Hill is a progressive, multi-year program that not only advances students’ engineering knowledge and engineering practices, but also allows them to experience engineering as a multidisciplinary field. Overtime they develop engineering identity and habits of mind, and get to see themselves as someone capable and competent of being an engineer and a designer of the 21st century.

Engineering Courses

Engineering 1 focuses on developing engineering habits of mind and thinking competencies through collaborative, hands-on, engineering projects. Students will be introduced to the core of engineering design practices, including problem scoping, ideation, prototyping, and troubleshooting. Students will explore the fundamentals of engineering science and principles, and apply them to engineering design projects.

Engineering 2 engages students in exploring the essential skills needed for designing smart products. Students will gain advanced 3D modeling skills in CAD and electronics, and be introduced to rapid prototyping, Internet of Things (IoT), and coding objects. Finally, students will engage in the engineering design process to define a need in the toy industry, and prototype a toy to address the identified need.   

Engineering 3 is an integration of engineering, design, project management and marketing. Expanding the skills and knowledge gained in the previous engineering classes, this course engages students in the multidisciplinary process of product design and user experience. Students learn about advanced engineering design approaches such as human-centered design, bio-inspired design, design aesthetics, and material processing. Finally, as their capstone design project, students work within a given budget, apply their engineering knowledge and skills to design a product for an actual local client, and deliver their design to their client.  

Engineering Disciplines of Real Life is designed only for 6th formers who are interested in pursuing engineering in college. Students will analyze engineering disciplines such as aerospace, mechanical, civil, energy, biomedical and electrical engineering in a college-level training. Each term, students will select one engineering discipline, explore industrial equipment, conduct industry-level experiments, and solve an engineering problem presented through a real-life scenario.

Accelerated Engineering: Exploring Engineering as a Multidisciplinary Practice engages students in reflective and critical analysis of their multidisciplinary engineering experiences. Students will develop and practice engineering design thinking and problem solving, develop engineering professional skills like teamwork, communication, and engineering ethics. They will also gain advanced CAD skills, learn about electronics, and explore qualitative and quantitative analytical approaches. Students will design for a client, pitch their ideas, collect and analyze user data, and present their final design.

Hill's Engineering Lab is located on the ground floor of the new Shirley Quadrivium Center.

Quadrivium Scholars
New for the 2022-23 academic year, the Quadrivium Scholars program is for upperform students interested in conducting college-level STEM research. We offer a one-year and two-year track designed to develop the mindsets of engineers, designers, scientists, and innovators as they seek to discover solutions to challenging societal issues.

QED Seminar is embedded in all the courses offered by the Quadrivium Engineering and Design. Every month, professionals from various engineering, design, technology, and computer science fields will be invited to give a talk in QED classes. The seminar allows students to interact with professionals and learn from their pathways, their real-world experiences, and their emerging fields. The seminar has been successfully piloted in 2021-2022 academic year.

Computer Science Courses

Computer Science (CS) program at The Hill exposes students to multiple programing languages and several advanced and college-level CS topics, which provide them with a strong foundation and a wide perspective of ways computer science can be used in 21st century.

Introduction to Web Design introduces web development through a study of HTML, CSS, JavaScript and site design, using Adobe Dreamweaver software. Students will be introduced to these topics as they produce their own website from the ground up. This course fulfills the art requirement.

Introduction to Computer Programming Students will learn programming concepts and commands through block-based coding before transitioning to the study and mastery of Python. This class integrates algebraic thinking, programmatic knowledge, and the use of scenario abstraction. 

Foundations of COmputing and Advanced Computer Programming This college level, year-long class delves into the fundamentals of computing with a focus on programming in Java. The curriculum covers a broad range of topics including abstraction, algorithm development, memory allocation, and basic computer architecture.

Data Science and AI (CL) Students will delve into the challenges of image analysis and reinforce their knowledge through machine learning and augmented reality applications. They will collect and create datasets to train machine learning algorithms and learn about the concepts of cybersecurity, including the ethical implications of sharing data through digital networks. The mathematical concepts and computer science principles of cryptography will also be evaluated. 

AP Computer Science Principles This year-long class utilizes a version of Harvard University’s CS50 curriculum to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of computing with a programming-centric focus. Topics covered in this class include algorithms, abstraction, data, global impact, and internet technologies, among others. Students will also develop competence in several programming languages including Python and C.

Data Structures and Algorithms is an advanced, college-level course in which students will learn about fundamental data structures and algorithms and explore the tradeoffs between different implementations of these abstractions. This class will have a strong problem solving emphasis as students will continue to build on the Java fundamentals developed in AP Computer Science A. Students will engage with data structures such as lists, stacks, queues, maps, and trees, as well as various searching and sorting algorithms.

Advanced Computer Science Seminar is an open research and development time for highly motivated and creative students looking to explore complex projects. Students will submit a project proposal at the beginning of the fall and work on their project over the course of the year. This class will allow students to advance skills in areas such as collaborative programming, debugging and testing, and version and quality control.

Underwater Robotics and Physical Computing (Honors) In this course, students will learn the basics of robotics using various hardware and software components and systems. Starting with learning electronic circuits, students will move on to understanding the Arduino microcontroller and Raspberry Pi microcomputer, and various other electronic sensors and boards as their understanding of robotics grows and evolves.

Data Structures and Algorithms (CL) This full-year course focuses on the fundamental theories and topics of computer science. Students will study more advanced data structures such as stacks, queues, and binary trees; and dig deeper into AP topics such as searches, sorts, and recursion. Additionally, students will begin explorations into GUI-based programming. 

View the Course Catalog for more information.

For more information, please contact Dr. Hoda Esahn, Chair of the Engineering Department, at hehsan@thehill.org.