Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Mathematics

Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Mathematics Office

Unit Outline

Global Challenges in Engineering

ENSC1001
SEM-2, 2015
Campus: Crawley
Unit Coordinator: Dr Rita Armstrong

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Unit details
Unit title
Unit code
Availability
Location

Global Challenges in Engineering

ENSC1001
SEM-2, 2015 (27/07/2015 - 21/11/2015)
Crawley

Credit points

Mode

Face to face

Contact details
Faculty
School
School website
Unit coordinator
Email
Telephone
Consultation hours
Unit contact hours
Online handbook
Other contact details

Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Mathematics

Faculty of Engineering, Computing & Mathematics Office
http://www.ecm.uwa.edu.au
Dr Rita Armstrong
rita.armstrong@uwa.edu.au
6488 2151
Please arrange with your Facilitator
Information sessions: 2 hrs per week; workshops: 2 hrs per week
http://units.handbooks.uwa.edu.au/units/ENSC/ENSC1001
Please contact ensc1001@uwa.edu.au for any enquiries.

Unit rules
Incompatibility

GENG1003 Introduction to Professional Engineering

Unit description
This unit lies at the start of the pathway to becoming an engineer. Engineers conceive ways to rearrange objects, materials and
systems to achieve beneficial outcomes. There are many personal and professional skills and knowledge, which need to be gained in
order to make use of the technical knowledge that students acquire in other units, and to apply these to real projects. In the unit,
students study a real project in one of three geopolitical contexts. They learn how the context influences the objectives, the process and
the outcomes; to work in small engineering teams with distributed expertiseno one person knows enough to reach the objective so
members of the team have to rely on working together; and to develop social interaction and other communication skills forming the
foundations of professional practice.

Learning outcomes
Students are able to (1) develop communication skills including accurate, active listening (note taking, acquiring language and
terminology of the speaker), seeing (sketching, visual representation), reading and comprehension skills, oral and written presentation
skills, the ability to clearly and concisely communicate the results of a project, and learn how to learn and teach others; (2) develop
teamwork skills including the development of a cooperative relationship with peers and experts in order to obtain information and
assistance when needed, to become aware of distributed expertise/coordination, to develop the ability to work well in multidisciplinary
and multicultural teams and understand the role as team leader and player, and to manage effectively with dysfunctional teams and
resolve conflicts; (3) develop project management skills including the ability to plan projects efficiently and effectively, as well as time
management; (4) develop enquiry skills including the ability to critique the historical function of engineering and its role in society, to
appreciate and critique common ways of thinking, researching and practicing engineering as well as common modes of discourse; (5)
develop literacy skills including the ability to source, critique, assess reliability of, and potential bias of, information from a variety of
sources and properly reference these; (6) demonstrate enhanced creative thinking and appreciate the barriers to creative thought; (7)
develop the ability to critique, analyse the risk and synthesise data related to environmental, legal, ethical, health and safety impacts of
engineering; (8) demonstrate sensitivity and inclusivity towards cultural and gender diversity especially in relation to Indigenous
knowledge, values and culture; (9) develop a critical understanding of sustainability including the ability to apply that understanding
throughout a project life cycle; (10) develop an understanding of the environmental, social and economic context in which engineering is
practised; (11) develop the ability to recognise and diagnose common failure modes of tools, components, structures and materials;
(12) appreciate the difference between ill-structured and well-structured engineering problems and demonstrate the ability to frame an
ill-structured design problem in terms of functions, objectives and constraints; (13) identify critical design parameters and understand
their use in guiding design decisions; and (14) utilise a systematic method for qualitatively evaluating a range of alternative design
candidate solutions.

Assessment
Assessment overview
Typically this unit is assessed in the following way(s): (1) a project proposal; (2) presentations; (3) design project; and (4) weekly
progress report and attendance. Further information is available in the unit outline.

Assessment mechanism
# Component

Weight Due Date

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1
2
3
4
5

Attendance and Participation in Workshops

Weekly Progress Reports
Project proposal and first oral presentation
Final Report
Final oral presentation on team project

15%
15%
10%
50%
10%

Ongoing
Weekly
Week beginning August 25
Week beginning October 27
Week beginning October 27

Assessment items
Item Title

Description

Attendance and
participation

Attendance at Information and Practical Workshops

is compulsory. If you are unable to attend either of
these sessions, you must notify your Tutor in
advance and provide a medical certificate or other
documentation which explains your absence. If you
miss more than 2 tutorials, you are liable to fail this
unit and will need to submit a Special Consideration
form to the ECM Student Office. You will also gain
extra marks for active participation and evidence that
you have done any preparatory work for the session.
Individual members of the Project Team will take
turns to submit a weekly progress report. This is a
brief statement (no more than 2 pages) which
should address the following issues:
1. Progress to date
2. Issues arising and mechanisms to address these
3. Reflection on process of teamwork
4. Questions

Weekly Progress
Reports

Submission Procedure for Assignments

Project proposal and Each team will submit a project proposal according
first oral presentation to the Unit guidelines in week 5 (Practical Workshop
4). Students will be also asked to give a five minute
team presentation, discussing your project proposal
(each student must speak). You will receive critique
and feedback from the other teams.
Project report

Final Oral
presentation

The guidelines and marking criteria for writing the

Progress Report are included in the Course Reader
(under the Assessment section) and in the
Assessment Topic on LMS

The marking criteria which we will use for both the

oral presentation and the project proposal are
included in the Course Reader (under the
Assessment section) and in the Assessment Folder
on LMS.
NB: all team members will receive the same mark
for their project proposal and their oral presentation.
The final report is due in the Information Session in
the final week of the course. The guidelines for
writing the report, and the marking criteria, are
included in the Course Reader and in the
Assessment Folder on LMS. Use the Cover Sheet
provided in the Assessment Folder on LMS.
NB: team members may not receive the same mark
for the Project Report. You will be expected to
indicate which member of the team wrote which
sections of the Report, either in the Table of
Contents or on a separate section of the Report. If
there is evidence of equal contribution in a) the Self
& Peer Evaluation feedback and b) in the Project
Report, then all team members will receive the
same mark. Otherwise marks will be adjusted
accordingly.
Project teams will give a ten minutes presentation on You should arrive at your Information Session as
their design solution (set out in their Project Report). early as possible so that you can bring your
model/prototype up to the Information Sessions for
display during their presentation. Team members
will receive a group mark for their final oral
presentation

Textbooks and resources

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Recommended texts
There is no text book for this unit. You should however purchase the Course Reader from the Co-op Bookstore; this contains a detailed
description of the Unit, including the activities and readings for each Information Session, and a Guide to the Practical Workshops. The
Course Reader should be available for purchase by the first week of semester.

Other important information

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