Discovering Engineering provides an introduction to three aspects of engineering: the disciplines; the practice; and the roles and responsibilities. These three themes are interwoven throughout the course to enhance student skills in communication, teamwork, problem formulation, systems design, an understanding of the responsibilities of engineering practice, and an awareness of reflective and ethical professional practice.

1. A range of engineering disciplines are discovered through team research projects and guest speaker presentations by practicing engineers in the fields of biomedicine, environment, military, telecommunications, production, materials, software development, robotics, virtual environments and more.
2. The practice of engineering is discovered in a group design and build project. From conceptualization to production and testing, students are responsible for the outcomes of an open-ended design problem. They gain an appreciation of the issues involved in taking a design from the concept phase to the manufacturing phase.
3. The roles and responsibilities of engineers, technologists and scientists in society are examined through analysis and debate of topical contentious issues. Students will appreciate the complexity of social issues and develop a framework for ethical, professional analysis of such issues. Contemporary issues examined include: decision-making in science and technology; environmental decision-making in support of sustainable development; the impact of technology on social health; privacy and security issues in the internet age; the future in artificial intelligence; professionalism and ethics in technological development.

Having successfully completed this course, students should:

Knowledge Base

1. understand the importance of teams and teamwork in engineering, including the effectiveness of empathic listening,
2. understand the importance of adequate project planning and design in engineering projects,
3. be able to take apart a manufactured item and give a basic description of how it works,
4. understand the importance of sustainable design,
5. understand the vital importance of effective communication, appropriate to the audience,
6. recognise the role and responsibility of engineers as leaders in society with respect to improving the livelihoods of all.

Practical Skills

Having successfully completed this course, students should be able to:

1. work effectively in teams, showing respect and understanding to other team members,
2. write an effective project plan,
3. effectively use a CAD program for basic engineering drawing, and understand the basics of engineering drawing including tolerances,
4. understand and be able to use appropriately, significant figures and units,
5. understand and utilise basic engineering analysis techniques,
6. appropriately collect, record, present and interpret engineering data in graphical form,
7. understand and utilise basic statistical concepts,
8. write an appropriate project design specification document, such that a product can be built by a team not involved in the original design,
9. give a technical presentation to a non-expert audience.

Team Project including documentation and presentation (60%);  CAD assignment (10%); Final exam (30%)

30-36 one-hour lectures, 7 one-hour tutorials, 12 hours of labs, plus ~40 hours outside of class

Admission to the BE degree course or the BSEng degree course or approval of Head of Engineering.

"Engineering Your Future", by Dowling, Carew and Hadgraft.

Course page http://eng.anu.edu.au/study/currentstudents/courses