Aims

To introduce and implement the concept of design, the process of design, approaches to design, and multi- disciplinary design.

To identify and explore how to resolve ethical issues related to an engineering situation and to recognise the ethical responsibilities of engineers.

To gain an awareness of programming languages, software tools and software development environments for design.

To give the students the opportunity to take knowledge gained from formal lectures in Stage 1 and produce an innovative solution to a discipline-led, multi-disciplinary design.

To develop awareness and understanding of systems: the inter-dependence of sub-systems dealt with in other themes, resource flows and life-cycles;

To integrate the knowledge and techniques developed in other themes within a single design case study;

To develop the ability to carry out conceptual design of components with recognition of their place and role in systems;

Review the requirements and produce conceptual designs for a small sustainable system, strongly linked to other themes.

Reflect on group working strategies throughout the project.

To develop transferable and graduate skills that will be essential throughout the student’s studies and career.

To enhance students’ abilities in the presentation of scientific work, using a range of media (written, oral, digital, combinations), providing formative feedback to support the requirements of other modules with a practical component.

Outline Of Syllabus

•       Design and Professional Skills, including: How to design? Principles of problem definition. Exploring how components work. Introduction to ethics in engineering and raising awareness of issues, obligations and responsibilities. Reflecting and critiquing of ethical issues. Group/team working strategies (including a residential activity during the first teaching week).
•       Visualisation and communication – sketching design concepts and annotation, introduction to commercial computer-aided design and drafting software applications (e.g. Autodesk INVENTOR); introduction to commercial calculation and numerical computing applications (e.g Excel, MATLAB). Basic instrumentation.
•       Computation – introduction to programme languages and computing methods for engineering applications. Introduction to software development, problem solving, algorithmisation. Programming languages, their syntax and semantics. Program development environment - introduction to C.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

* Key for Teaching Methods abbreviations:

SO - Synchronous online

NSO - Non-synchronous online

PIP - Present in person

S1 - Semester 1

S2 - Semester 2

Wksp - Workshop


The design project helps students to acquire skills in communicating ideas, concepts and solutions effectively. Drawing and Computer-Aided Design skills are achieved through CAD exercises in Semester 1 and in the design project in Semester 2. Programming skills are achieved through C and MATLAB programming activities.

Professional skills are developed in Semester 1 through an investigation on ethical issues on a general engineering topic and a video presentation.

Digital skills are developed throughout the module, including assessments through digital lab workbooks.

The problem-solving aspects of the Design and Create activity enable the students to demonstrate a broad range of understanding and the analysis and synthesis of skills to novel situations.

Written reports and video presentations allow students to learn about ethical issues and professional skills, while also providing opportunities for reflection and critical analysis.

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The design project helps students to acquire skills in communicating their design ideas, concepts and solutions effectively.
Drawing skills are achieved through a CAD drawing exercise in Semester 1 and in the design project in Semester 2.
Programming skills are achieved through C and MATLAB programming activities.
Professional skills are developed in Semesters 1 and 2 through team-based design and build objectives. . The problem-solving aspects of the Design and Create activity, and assessments at each of the Build workshop sessions, enable the students to demonstrate that they can apply this understanding and their analysis and synthesis skills to novel situations. These are further explored through an individual reflective log.