GROUP DESIGN PROJECT - 2025/6

Module Overview

The design of mechanical systems requires technical and creative skills to deliver engineering solutions for society’s grand challenges. Within this context, engineers must operate in a responsible and ethical manner, recognise the importance of diversity, and help ensure that the benefits of innovation and progress are shared equitably and do not compromise the natural environment or deplete natural resources to the detriment of future generations.

In this module students will work collaboratively in small groups to tackle an engineering design challenge, drawing on relevant technical skills, and present their final design concept.

Module provider

Mechanical Engineering Sciences

Module Leader

SHAFIEE Mahmoud (Mech Eng Sci)

Number of Credits: 60

ECTS Credits: 30

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Year long

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:  Engineering design approaches, project and risk management, errors and uncertainties, commercialisation of research results, ethics for engineers, data management, security, open research, equality, diversity and inclusion in engineering practice and design, personality types & communication preferences, professional behaviour, sustainability in complex problems.

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Individual submission of poster and presentation

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate the intended learning outcomes.

 

Summative assessment:

• Continuous assessment of the student’s communication and teamwork (addresses learning outcomes 2, 3, 5)


• Poster of final design and process (addresses learning outcomes 1, 4, 6)


• Presentation of the final design and process (addresses learning outcomes 1, 4, 6)

 

To support the learning, formative assessment will be employed as method for self-reflection.

 

Formative assessment:

• Interim technical reporting


• Regular progress meetings

 

Feedback:

Students will receive technical and group performance feedback during regular progress reviews. Students will also receive individual performance feedback

Module aims

• To equip the participants with the design and teamworking skills to operate effectively in a modern engineering context characterised by complex multifaceted problems involving multiple and diverse stakeholders.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to allow students to apply and strengthen their understanding of approaches to engineering design, including the development of an appreciation of non-technical challenges and barriers for practicing engineers and research scientists. Focused around a specific design challenge, where students will work in small groups, the students will also engage in number of case studies that will explore the core engineer attributes through a mix of lectures and active discussions. Where feasible, projects will be proposed by Industrial partners.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: ENGM307

Other information

The School of Mechanical Engineering Sciences is committed to developing graduates with strengths in Employability, Digital Capabilities, Global and Cultural Capabilities, Sustainability and Resourcefulness and Resilience. This module is designed to allow students to develop knowledge, skills and capabilities in the following areas:

 

Employability: This module provides students with knowledge about the engineering design process related to complex systems. The module builds on this to develop the student’s understanding, through practical application, of the interrelationships between design decisions. Students will work in small groups – sharing and critiquing ideas and concepts – to refine and test their fundamental understanding of a design challenge. Students will become familiar with open discussion methods and supportive collaborative environments.  This module provides students with the opportunity to develop and demonstrate professional skills which are central to a career in engineering. Students will gain a working knowledge of the lifecycle stages of a complex engineering system design, using a simplified systems engineering approach. Students can demonstrate effective team working, adapting their approach and attitudes, responding to different personality traits in team members and improving communication skills for different audiences. Students further develop their project management skills, by helping to plan group work, making the most effective use of available resources, assigning roles/responsibilities and ensuring targets are met. 

 

Digital capabilities: Students will use digital platforms to evaluate and gain understanding of the impacts of design decisions. As a member of a group tackling a complex engineering design, students will address numerous project activities that arise, within which various software capabilities may be relevant. It is likely that data management and CAD software will need to be collaboratively applied by each member, in order to develop an integrated solution. Other potential software will depend upon the particular project and could include tools for structural analysis, thermo-fluids simulation, dynamics, electronics design, systems modelling etc. Students may also develop software for simulation, data-processing, visualisation and presentation. Finally, project management tools may also be used as part of project planning.

 

Global and Cultural Capabilities: An effective engineering design solution requires students to demonstrate an appreciation of the societal impacts of the design decisions. By its very nature this will require students to demonstrate global culture awareness due to the global nature of any engineered product. Allocation of students to each project group is random, so all students will experience working with a new team of people. This will require students to engage effectively and respect the interests of people from various backgrounds and cultures. Students will interact, communicate and build relationships across the team, as a result of a common focus on driving the project forward successfully. Peer assessment will encourage students to recognise and value the contribution of each team member. In group discussions, students are encouraged to learn and share from each other's personal and cultural knowledge and perspectives.

 

Sustainability: Effective engineering design should fully embrace the sustainability of the product across the whole of the life cycle. In doing so the students need to address and compare the environmental, social and manufacturing capitals involved, linking to the UN sustainability goals, in order to both define the sustainability of a product and its manufacturing process and also suggest ways in which the product and processes could be made more sustainable. 

 

Resourcefulness and resilience: Students will develop resourcefulness in responding to problem-based task requirements through sharing ideas and experiences both individually and collectively, appreciating potential barriers and challenges faced by others, providing support and showing empathy towards each other in working towards achieving successful outcomes.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2025/6 academic year.