This course is designed to offer students an opportunity to collaborate with peers in a small-group setting and tackle a real-world engineering problem under the direction of an external project client. Project teams receive a client-drafted problem statement, which calls for engineering expertise. From this problem statement, the students are responsible for developing a full set of requirements and key performance indicators to guide their proposed solution. Using a systems engineering framework and working with a high degree of autonomy, the students then proceed through a systems design process including conceptual design, sub-system requirements, and trade-off analyses. Finally, they develop and implement their engineered solution, and evaluate it against the agreed performance indicators. At the end of the project, clients take delivery—and participate in the evaluation—of their team's output. The course emphasises value-driven work, as evaluated in terms of: effective teamwork and peer support; impactful communication (formal and informal, written and oral); insightful personal and professional development; and elegance of engineered solutions.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:
- Synthesise advanced engineering knowledge and approaches to produce elegant solutions to technical problems.
- Develop, analyse, and critically evaluate alternative options in order to justify and generate solutions in a real-world project.
- Apply project management and organisational skills to produce time-sensitive deliverables in a multi-disciplinary team.
- Effectively communicate decisions and solutions using appropriate media to professional and lay audiences.
- Demonstrate and reflect on leadership, creativity, and professional attributes as an individual and as member of a multi-disciplinary team.
