Team engineering

What you will study

This module provides an opportunity for you to explore an engineering problem in depth, working as part of a small team. Your team will choose its problem from a number of options, each with a particular engineering focus but all involving a broad range of engineering knowledge and skills – from design through structural and control engineering to sustainability. A central aspect will be the contribution of your engineering practice within the team and the need apply skills such as analytical design and engineering analysis.

You will attend two schools that run over three days, from Friday to Sunday. At the first one, which takes place at the very start of the module, you will learn about functioning effectively as a team and get to know each other by confronting a variety of practical and intellectual challenges. You will join with fellow students to form a team of four or five. Your team will select their project from those on offer and refine the project by developing an appropriate aim and SMART objectives.

After the first weekend and working at a distance from the other team members, you will individually and jointly pursue agreed lines of enquiry on your engineering project. Your progress through the project is recorded in your team wiki, in online video conference records of team meetings and in team and individual reports, submitted as tutor-marked assignments.

All the teams will report back at the second school some 20 weeks later. This will give you a chance to engage in discussions with other students and staff members before developing a plan for your final project report, which is your end-of-module assessment (EMA). This is submitted several weeks later.

This is not a content-focused module. Instead, you and your team will be responsible for gathering together the information you need to pursue your project. You will be supplied with a project brief and with background material about group working and project management. You will have access to a full range of information resources through the internet and online or conventional libraries. You will keep in touch with your tutor and work collaboratively with your fellow team members through frequent, regular online meetings and your team wiki.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

Throughout your module studies, you’ll get help and support from your assigned module tutor. They’ll help you by:

• Marking your assignments (TMAs) and providing detailed feedback for you to improve.
• Guiding you to additional learning resources.
• Providing individual guidance, whether that’s for general study skills or specific module content.
• Facilitating online discussions between your fellow students, in the dedicated module and tutor group forums.

Assessment

The assessment details can be found in the facts box.

Two of the assignments will be joint submissions from your team, and two are personal accounts of your achievements and your contribution to the work of your team. The end-of-module assessment also consists of a group and individual project reports together with an assessed presentation and poster from the second school.

Residential schools

This module has two residential schools.

To pass the module, you must attend the first school.

A crucial part of the module assessment takes place at the second school – your team’s presentation of its progress so far. So, it’s important you plan to attend. You’ll not automatically fail the module if, for good reason, you’re unable to be there in person. In any case, you must contribute your share of effort to your team’s presentation at the school.