Engineering Design and Innovation
Overview
This unit aims to introduce students to the profession of engineering and covers professional skills including design, communication (written, oral, visual and technical), teamwork, project management, sustainability, ethics and creativity and innovation. This unit will help students clarify an engineering career path and will build their skill-set towards being an innovative engineer with skills in both open-ended problems and solution focused outcomes and develop students’ ability to graphically communicate ideas and designs using engineering standards and graphical communication.
Requisites
01-June-2025
Learning outcomes
Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:
- Discuss professional engineering careers and emerging trends in Engineering and appraise the ethical aspects of engineering projects (K1, K4, K6, A1 A2)
- Conduct basic scientific research using appropriate sources of data and interpret and synthesise these in terms of ongoing scientific debates (K1, K4, K5, S1, S2, S4, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7)
- Identify, discuss, and generate solutions to engineering and design problems using sustainability solutions and prioritise these solutions in terms of social, economic and environmental factors . (K1, K2, K3, K4, K6, S1, S2, S3, A3, A4, A6)
- Develop basic skills in design, Plan and design a solution to an engineering design problem using engineering methods, assess alternative design strategies in terms of economic, social and environmental factors and justify your design in terms of these factors and standard engineering principles and practices (K2, K3, K5, S1, S2, S3, S4, A1, A2, A3, A4, A6, A7)
- Appraise and assess the quality of your colleagues’ project work and reflect upon your own experiences within the unit and in your project team (A4, A5, A6, A7)
- Use and improve your negotiation, communication, presentation, planning, design, management, research and analysis skills to form an effective part of a project team (S2, S4, A2, A5, A6, A7)
- Demonstrate effective communication through a professional presentation and engineering report writing and generate professional engineering drawings for engineering objects (K1, K2, K5, K6, A2, A5, A6)
Teaching methods
Hawthorn
| Type | Hours per week | Number of weeks | Total (number of hours) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Lecture | 2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Computer Laboratory | 3.00 | 12 weeks | 36 |
| Face to Face Contact (Phasing out) Workshop | 2.00 | 12 weeks | 24 |
| Unspecified Learning Activities (Phasing out) Independent Learning | 5.50 | 12 weeks | 66 |
| TOTAL | 150 |
Assessment
| Type | Task | Weighting | ULO's |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Individual | 10 - 20% | 3,4,5,6,7 |
| Drawing Portfolio | Individual | 10 - 30% | 3,4,5,6,7 |
| Online Tests | Individual | 10 - 30% | 3,4,5,6,7 |
| Portfolio | Individual | 10 - 30% | 2,3,4,5 |
| Project | Group | 20 - 40% | 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 |
Hurdle
As the minimum requirements of assessment to pass a unit and meet all ULOs to a minimum standard, an undergraduate student must have achieved:
An aggregate mark of 50% or more
Content
- Introduction to engineering as a profession including major sub-disciplines of engineering
- Problem solving approach using engineering method
- Information skills for data and information resources, information searching and referencing
- Engineering professional communication including graphical, written and oral
- Introduction to Sustainable engineering, humanitarian engineering and ethics
- Introduction to design processes, design thinking and visualisation skills development to conceptually understand ill-defined problems
- Introduction to engineering technical communication standard, drawing and CAD
- Team based engineering research and design project
Study resources
Reading materials
A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.