Student Proposals for the Design of Devices to Improve Ms. Sandi Mugford’s Experience of Fuelling her Car

Abstract

<p>Engineering Profession and Practice (ENGINEER 1P03) is a term-long course for first year engineering students at McMaster University. The course introduces the engineering profession, and includes ethics, health and safety, sustainability, design skills and team skills. The course is taken by every student in Engineering 1 (Level 1 Engineering). In 2013, there were 940 students enrolled, 28 teaching assistants, a course coordinator, and one instructor.</p> <p>Each year the course culminates in a final design project where the students work together in teams of four or five to design a solution for a problem for a real-world client. The project lasts six weeks, and a two-hour tutorial session is dedicated each week to team project work. In addition to the in-tutorial work, approximately twelve lecture lessons are used to support the project, and include presentations by users, stakeholders and specialists.</p> <p>In 2013, the 199 student teams designed devices to assist the client who had rheumatoid arthritis. The students worked in their teams to define the problem, generate the objectives and functions of the design, create a list of design alternatives and build a working prototype. The teams then presented their design and justified their choices, with the best projects presented in front of the client and faculty members at the annual showcase. This document is a compilation of abstracts belonging to the entire class.</p>