Unit information: Group Industrial Project in 2013/14

Unit name	Group Industrial Project
Unit code	MENGM5000
Credit points	40
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 4 (weeks 1-24)
Unit director	Dr. Shterenlikht
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering
Faculty	Faculty of Engineering

Description including Unit Aims

In this unit you will undertake an advanced engineering team project combining technical and commercial aspects at a level of sophistication representative of that within an industrial environment. Projects are run in association with industrial companies, and arise from real company or industrial user needs with team working and project management playing important roles. Aspects such as marketing, interpreting customer requirements, producing technical specification, design, experimentation, manufacture, costing, safety and evaluation of performance are covered. Communication skills are an important aspect to the course. The objectives are that the students should be able to: grasp the essentials of an open-ended problem and apply themselves to its solution, organise their own work, but also integrate it with the overall activities of the team, coordinate the overall direction of the team, communicate their work through a group report and presentation and on individual interview, understand, investigate, and integrate a wide range of non-technical factors such as cost and safety.

Intended Learning Outcomes

• Learn how to plan and execute a project and work to a budget
• Learn how to work in a team to achieve a global goal
• Learn to write a detailed and structured project report
• Advance knowledge in the subject area of the project
• Learn to communicate results to a jury

Teaching Information

Each group of students is allocated an academic supervisor at the beginning of the year. He or she is responsible for advising the students on how they might progress with the project. The content and methods of the project are negotiated between the students and the supervisor, and a project specification that will be a broad outline of aim, objectives, methods of the project should be agreed and written down on the form provided by the end of week 3 of the Autumn Term. This form must be signed by both the supervisor and the student. Over the course of the year it is recommended that the students and their supervisor should meet regularly to assess progress and plan future work. At the end of the Autumn Term there will be a formal progress meeting between each individual student and the supervisor and a further form will be completed that will summarise over about half a page of A4 the main discussion points/requirements/ problems/change of work plan etc with respect to the project. This review document must be signed by the student. These documents will be required for the end of project assessment. It is recommended that work on the content of the project should finish at the end of week 18 to allow sufficient time for a draft copy of the project report to be produced.

Assessment Information

Assessment of each project will be made by a jury of three academic staff which will not include the project supervisor. In making their assessment the jury will agree a mark based on the following pieces of evidence:

• project specification from the beginning of the project (see above);
• report from the progress meeting at the end of the Autumn Term (see above);
• end of project report on the student by the supervisor;
• project report written by the students and submitted by the end of the first week of the Summer Term;
• A3 poster or web site produced by the student and submitted by the end of the second week of the Summer Term;
• 15 minute group presentation by the students to the jury followed by up to fifteen minutes of questions.