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View from the Hill
Experiential Education at UNH:
When the World is Your Classroom
The University of New Haven is taking the classroom out of the building, and the students into the field. UNH students are availing themselves of internships, research opportunities, and community service that bring them into contact with scientists, businesspeople, professional engineers, authors and more. Experience combined with education—aka experiential education—is moving UNH students into the future equipped to succeed.
Mike Folcik ‘09
Engineering Prowess Translates into a New Invention and a Growing Campus Club
Mike Folcik ’09 may be a patient person, but not when it comes to the UNH Robotics Club. He grows impatient waiting for parts to come in, for members to finish their projects, for finding time to complete a project. His ambition is contagious: The robotics club didn’t exist before the Fall of 2005, and now membership is growing, and the students are working on a project that belies their youth. “We are working on a project that only the most advanced and established robotics programs in the country would even consider,” Folcik says.
What is it? A fuel-cell lawnmower with GPS. Put it on the lawn, and watch it go.
Folcik founded the Robotics Club two years ago. Much more than just a place for him to apply his longtime hobby of creating practical experiments, he has been able to gain experience leading a team and working with different types of sensors, navigation techniques and motor control.
In addition to being a full-time student and an active Robotics Club member, he is involved in the engineering society IEEE and the Alpha Lambda Delta Honor Society. He also owns his own business doing computer repair and programming. With his business, Folcik has designed a number of online storefronts, created business scheduling software, and built and repaired his clients’ computers.
With a lifelong interest in what makes things work, Folcik would spend his money on remote control cars when he was younger.
“I was very computer savvy,” he says, “and began programming and designing websites around age 10.” His interests in both the mechanical and electrical fields led him to pursue a degree in Computer Engineering and to create the Robotics Club. He hopes to obtain an internship next summer in Computer Engineering, to better prepare him for life after college.
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