AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO DESIGN TEACHING IN A GENERAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Design teaching is widely recognised as the core activity in engineering education, which integrates the subject specific technical contents with the social and technical needs. Design is the creation and development of products or systems to meet the needs and it involves significant technical and intellectual challenges. Integration of all engineering understanding, knowledge and skills are needed to solve the real problems. This paper describes an integrated approach to design teaching in a General Engineering department. The integrated approach emphasizes the need for systems and product design approach, and aligns the CDIO approach in the design teaching, involving: (1) the generation of general product concepts, (2) the selection of concepts between competing design solutions, (3) the application of engineering principal for detailed mechanical, electrical and software specifications and (4) the integration of the product designs. The exercise provides students with a platform to think across discipline-specific engineering fundamentals and to integrate technologies in product and system design. It also provides an opportunity to integrate technical fundamentals with personal and interpersonal skills for developing professional and leadership skills.