![UW Tacoma student Elena Mendoza has her nose inside a jar of coffee beans. Mendoza has brightly colored hair and wears glasses. Another student is looking at her. He has on a grey beanie and glasses. In the foreground are the blurred shoulders of other students.](/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-featureimage-coffee.jpg)
Steeped In Engineering
Assistant Professor Seung-Jin Lee uses coffee to teach first-year students about engineering.
It is a Tuesday morning in late October and a group of college students is on its way to a coffee shop. The group crosses Pacific Avenue and comes to a stop outside the Washington State History Museum. They linger for a few minutes as they wait for the 16 bus to take them to Tacoma’s Three Bridges neighborhood.
![The front of a Pierce Transit bus. There is a glare on the windshield but the driver is partially visible. There is text on the bus reader board that says "16 Downtown Tacoma via Proctor District"](https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-storyimage-coffee-bus.jpg)
There are multiple coffee shops on the campus footprint, but this trip isn’t necessarily about drinking a cup of coffee. The group is part of Assistant Professor Seung-Jin Lee’s T CORE 102, Introduction to Engineering course. “This class introduces students to various concepts in engineering,” said Lee.
The course is designed for first-year, pre-major students. “For a lot of my students this is their first time taking an engineering course,” said Lee. “This course was inspired by a course at the University of California Davis called 'The Design of Coffee' and was developed to create a sense of community and also a support structure for students wanting to pursue a STEM major.”
As it turns out, that cup of coffee so many of us enjoy every morning requires a lot of engineering to make happen. “Coffee production and roasting involve various types of equipment which involve mechanical, electrical and even chemical and environmental engineering,” said Lee. “The way beans are roasted gives us a chance to talk about heat transfer, an important mechanical engineering topic. The way products get distributed involves supply chain management, which is a core aspect of civil engineering.”
![Assistant Professor Seung-Jin Lee talks to two students. The three are walking down a sidewalk. Lee is wearing a dark colored jacket, blue jeans and has short black hair and glasses. The student closest to him is wearing a grey beenie, a dark colored jacket and jeans. The student next to him is wearing a red and gray coat and blue jeans. He has short, brown hair. In the background are different trees and bushes.](https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-storyimage-coffee-walking.jpg)
Lee and his class made trips to three different coffee shops in Tacoma during the quarter. He also invited coffee shop owners to class to discuss their work. On this day, the class is headed to Lander Coffee on North 21st.
Lander’s owner, Dustin Johnson, meets Lee and the students at the shop. In the back of the building is a small room that doubles as roasting plant. For the next 45 minutes Johnson talks to the class about his business, including where he gets his beans, how he roasts them and what each piece of equipment does.
![Lander Coffee owner Dustin Johnson uses a plastic cup to scoop out some unroasted green coffee beans from a bin. Johnson is wearing an orange beenie,a gray sweater and blue jeans. There are three students behind him and one to the front and right of where he is standing. There is coffee equipment and boxes off to the side.](https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-storyimage3-coffee-scooping.jpg)
Madison Maldonado watches attentively as Johnson pours a cup of green coffee beans into a miniature roaster. The machine whirs to life. Madison is planning to major in psychology but took this course because it sounded interesting. “I think it’s cool that we get to explore the city,” she said. “I didn’t know much about engineering beforehand, but the way this course is taught makes it fun and less intimidating so I feel I’ve learned a lot.”
![Lander Coffee owner Dustin Johnson talks to a group of students. Johnson is on the left side of the frame. A group of six students form a semi-circle around him. One student has leaned forward to watch as coffee beans get ground in a grinder.](https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-storyimage-coffee-talking.jpg)
At the end of the 45 minutes, Lee and the class thank Johnson then make the trek back to the bus stop. While on the bus Lee makes small talk with his class to get a sense of how they felt the visit went. “The hope is that some of these students will want to major in engineering,” he said. “If they decided not to, I hope this class at least changes their perspective on engineering and the variety of ways engineers impact the world.”
![15 students in the T CORE 102 course pose for a group photo.](https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/sites/default/files/2022-11/uwtnews-storyimage-coffee-group.jpg)