FACULTY OF ENGINEERING SCIENCE
Engineering Thinking I
The engineering profession is essential to modern society. Engineers draw on
collective professional experience, scientific theory, data and personal creativity to
solve problems. Engineers devise models of physical and technological systems to
understand problems, test designed solutions and inform decision making. Engineers
must consider the health and safety of the public and sustainability as their highest
concerns, and must account for client and user needs in their designs. This module
provides a hands-on experience of engineering in defining and solving a sociotechnical problem. Students will work in teams to design and build a new system to
optimise water efficiency at UCL.
1. Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course you should be able to:
1. Use engineering analysis to design an appropriate solution to a problem.
2. Integrate engineering standards, practical know-how and scientific
knowledge in implementing an engineering project.
3. Describe the role of engineering in modern society.
2. Teaching Staff
Module Co-ordinators
Dr Kate Crawford
Email
catherin.crawford@ucl.ac.uk
Prof. Stephen Hailes
Room
Mallet Place Engineering 7.19
Phone
020 7679 3432
Email
s.hailes@cs.ucl.ac.uk
3. Water Efficiency
UCL has made significant improvements its environmental performance in recent
years. One area requiring further attention is water efficiency. Understanding water
use in the UCL estate is an important step in achieving more efficient water use.
In this module you will work in teams to design and then implement an automated
sub-metering system at UCL that meets the needs of UCL Estates and users of the
bathroom. Further details of the project will be provided in a ‘Call for Tenders’
document and briefing session.
4. Schedule
Each week the seminar will address a general engineering topic, and the studio will
provide specific support for the water efficiency project. Sessions marked (B) will be
led by Dr Crawford, and sessions marked (H) will be led by Prof. Hailes.
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Seminar (1 hour)
Studio (2 hours)
What is engineering? (B) Water efficiency
Project briefing (B)
The project lifecycle(B)
Sensor networks (H)
Requirements
Project planning (B)
Engineering (B)
Flow in pipes (B)
Required Readings
Bell (2013)
Davis (1998)
Nuseibah
and
Easterbrook (2000)
Nakayama and
Boucher (1999)
Sensors and data networks (H)
Hales (1993)
Engineering ethics (B)
Tender review (B)
Petrovski (1996)
Commissioning and testing (H and B)
Martin
and
Schinzinger (1996)
Engineering knowledge Data management and McCarthy (2009)
(B)
analysis (H)
Engineering practice (B) System validation (B)
Trevelyan (2010)
Engineering challenges
Riley (2005)
(B)
This schedule and staffing is subject to change, and may evolve to meet your needs
and changing circumstance during the term. Please ensure you check your messages
in moodle and UCL email for notification of changes.
5. Assessment
Your final grade for the module will be based on two group assessment tasks and
two individual tasks. This will be calculated as follows:
Group Task
Tender
Final Report and Documentation
Marks
15
35
Individual Task
Critical Review
Data analysis
Marks
25
25
Tender
Working with your assigned group, you must submit a tender for implementation of
a system for optimising water efficiency at UCL, in line with the Call for Tenders
document and briefing session. The tender process require a written submission
addressing the Call for Tenders requirements, and a short presentation and response
to client queries in a tender review session.
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Final Report and Documentation
The class will submit a final project report and system documentation to the client.
The report should be written to meet the client’s requirements, and as such may not
necessarily include all of the work done to complete the project. The report and
documentation should be written to professional standards.
Data Analysis
An individual piece of work demonstrating skills in analysis of engineering data. This
task will be assigned in class.
Critical Review
Write an 800 word paper reviewing one of the required readings. Your review should
include:
- a succinct outline of the main point of the article
- a short summary of the content of the article
- strengths and weaknesses of the article
- the importance, relevance or implications of the article for sustainability
Your paper should provide appropriate references to other relevant literature, as
well as the article you are discussing.
Submission
All coursework should be submitted in hard copy to the assignment box near the
Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering main office, and an electronic copy
must be submitted through turnitin on the moodle site.
6. Commitment
Engineering Thinking is a 15 credit point module, equivalent to 150 hours work,
including class time, project work, coursework preparation, reading and private
study.
7. Teaching
This course is scheduled on Friday mornings in Term 2. The course includes seminars,
studios and project work. Students are required to have read the weekly reading
before attending the seminars and studios.
This course is supported by Moodle. The site will be used to post lecture slides,
readings, other course materials, and course notices. The course website can be
found by logging in to Moodle at: www.moodle.ucl.ac.uk.
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8. Required Reading
Bell S. (2013) Creativity in Engineering. in Lawlor R. (ed.) Engineering in Society. Royal
Academy of Engineering and Inter-Disciplinary Ethics Applied, eBook available from
amazon.com
Davis M. (1998) Science, Technology, and Values. Chapter 1 in Thinking Like an Engineer
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hales C. (1993) Developed Concept – Embodiment Design. Chapter 8 in Managing
Engineering Design Harlow: Longman Scientific and Technical.
McCarthy N. (2009) The mind and methods of an engineer: core elements in engineering.
Chapter 3 in Engineering. A beginners guide. Oxford: One World.
Martin M. and Schinzinger R. (1996) Engineering as social experimentation. Chapter 3 in
Ethics in Engineering Third Edition, New York: McGraw Hill.
Nakayama Y. and Boucher R. (1999)Flow in Pipes. Chapter 7 in Introduction to Fluid
Mechanics London: Arnold.
Nuseibah B. and Easterbrook S. (2000) Requirements Engineering: a Roadmap. Proceedings
of ICSE 2000 Conference on the Future of Software Engineering New York, 35-46.
Petrovski H. (1996) Water and society. Chapter 8 in Invention by Design Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
Riley D. (2005) Toward a more socially just engineering. Chapter 4 in Engineering and Social
Justice San Rafael: Morgan and Claypool.
Trevelyan J. (2010) Reconstructing engineering from practice. Engineering Studies 2(3) 175195.
9. Recommended Reading
Bell
S. (2011) Engineers, Society and Sustainability Morgan and Claypool
www.morganandclaypool.com.
Brockman J. (2009) Introduction to Engineering: Modeling and Problem Solving Hoboken:
John Wiley and Sons.
Crawford M. (2010) The Case for Working with Your Hands: or Why Office Work is Bad for Us
and Fixing Things Feels Good London: Penguin. (also published as Crawford M.
(2009) Shop Class as Soulcraft: an Inquiry into the Value of Work New York:
Penguin.)
Dieter G. and Schmidt L. (2013) Engineering Design. Chapter 1 in Engineering Design Fifth
Edition, New York, McGraw Hill.
Kidder T. (1997) The Soul of the New Machine Modern Library Edition, New York: Random
House. (other editions are also available).
McCarthy N. (2009) Engineering. A beginners guide. Oxford: One World.
Petroski H. (1992) To Engineer is Human. New York: Vinage Books. (other editions are also
available).
Reilly N. (1993) Successful Systems Engineering for Engineers and Managers New York:
Chapman and Hall.
Levy M. and Salvadori M. (2002) New York: Norton. (other editions are also available).
Vincenti W. (1990) What Engineers Know and How They Know It. Baltimore and London:
Johns Hopkins University Press.
Vinck D. (2009) Everyday Engineering Cambridge: MIT Press.
Whitbeck C. (1998) Ethics in Engineering Practice and Research Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Williams B., Figueiredo J. and Trevelyan J. (2014) Engineering Practice in a Global Context.
London: CRC Press.
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10. Referencing
Referencing is an important technical aspect of academic writing and academic work.
Referencing ensures that the work of other authors is suitably acknowledged. It is also
crucial in providing evidence and support for your own arguments and positions.
Appropriate referencing is an academic skill that must be learned and practiced. You will
need to correctly reference any material that you use in preparing your coursework. The
library has prepared a useful document titled ‘Citing references and avoiding plagiarism’
which can be found on-line at http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Library/CitationPlagiarism.doc to help
you learn about referencing procedures. If you are still uncertain about referencing, please
contact your Tutor who can provide appropriate advice and support to help you develop this
most important skill.
11. Plagiarism
According to UCL policy,
Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of another person’s thoughts or words or
artefacts or software as though they were your own.
Plagiarism includes copying work from other students, submitting work completed by
students in previous years of the course, and copying from journal articles, books and
internet sources without correct referencing. Plagiarism seriously undermines the integrity
of the College and its graduates and if a deliberate case of plagiarism is suspected in this
course it will be treated as cheating under the University of London Proceedings in Respect
of Examination Irregularities.
Further details of the policy and proceedings can be found on the College website at:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/registry/current/examinations/irregularities/; and
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/registry/ucl-staff/pink-book/ .
There are many reasons why students commit acts of plagiarism. Some students plagiarise
because they are unsure of the conventions for referencing the sources they used in their
research. Other students resort to plagiarism because they feel unable to adequately
complete the assessment tasks in their own words. It is most important that if you feel that
you are not able to deal with the study requirements in this course or if you are unsure
about referencing conventions, then please ask your Tutor for help. Do not feel tempted to
risk your personal reputation and progress through your degree program by plagiarising or
cheating.
It is also most important to remember that each assessment task is an opportunity for you
to learn and to develop skills that will be of great value in professional and other areas of
your life. While you may feel under pressure to complete each assessment task you should
not waste important learning opportunities by dishonestly fulfilling the assessment
requirements, including copying material directly from the internet. If you are having
difficulty meeting assessment deadlines and requirements please contact your Tutor to work
out how best to maximise your learning, rather than resorting to plagiarism or cheating.
If you are in any way unsure about the rules and interpretations relating to plagiarism please
contact your Tutor for clarification. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this module.
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