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Visiting Professors' Scheme
Visiting Professors in Principles of Engineering Design: Good Practice Guidelines
Teaching engineering design
It may be helpful for other universities,
not participating in The Academy's scheme,
to take the opportunity to review their own
arrangements for design teaching and the
possible use of industrial professors and
lecturers to strengthen these arrangements.
With this in mind the following guidelines
were suggested for carrying out an audit of
design teaching and for the use of developed
'best practice' procedures in design
teaching.
Many of the points raised will already be
practiced in different ways in different
universities, but such an assessment should
reveal ways of generally enhancing and
developing the procedures in use.
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Engineering design – interpreted in its
broadest sense of 'competitive product
realisation' – is recognised as an
intellectually rigorous and prestigious
activity within the university and is
adopted as a common integrating thread in
engineering education.
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There is a common core curriculum in
multidisciplinary design in the first year
of all undergraduate engineering programmes.
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Progressively more advanced specialist
and/or interdisciplinary design work follows
in later years, with projects matching the
students' knowledge and skills at each
stage. Projects might form a linked series
through successive years. Experience of
interdisciplinary working features in all
years of engineering programmes.
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Projects concern real industrially-based
problems, and include applications of
engineering science as well as economic and
commercial evaluations. Specific attention
is given to concurrent engineering and rapid
prototyping. Wherever possible, projects are
carried out in teams and are formally
presented, reviewed and assessed at
appropriate milestones.
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Wherever practicable, design teaching is
studio based in order to foster good
relationships between teachers (as coaches)
and students, using a team teaching approach
to foster interdisciplinary activity. Where
appropriate, proctoring or mentoring of
junior students by senior students takes
place as an aid to design work and the
development of interpersonal skills.
Students are encouraged to develop a
portfolio of their design work.
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The university has strong links with
successful industrial companies and with
design-related applied research, giving
access which benefits engineering design
education including 'live' projects and
industrial placements.
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Visiting engineering designers with current
expertise in competitive product development
are appointed. They are selected against
identified criteria, work in specified roles
and in teams, and their work is
co-ordinated.
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Internal communications on design matters
are excellent and are aided, for example, by
an established design forum co-ordinated by
a senior design teacher and with
representatives of all departments having
design interests.
University/Faculty structure
Universities will already have a developed
'map' showing their academic structures. An
audit of these existing structures and
practices will help to show how the
opportunities to improve design teaching
identified above can be effected.
The following questions will help to
identify the context within which design
teaching currently takes place.
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Are related departments in different
faculties? To what extent are industrial
design, architecture, chemical engineering,
business studies, computer studies, etc.
separated from 'mainstream' engineering
departments?
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Can collaborative work be arranged between
departments if desired?
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Does 'service' teaching take place across
faculties?
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Do cross-charging arrangements inhibit
possible collaborative efforts?
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Can modules be grouped into significant
courses between faculties?
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Are there timetabling problems?
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Is there any interfaculty research?
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Are there any related industrial
organisations which might provide
interdisciplinary project opportunities,
perhaps in different faculties?
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Is there an industrial liaison group in the
university?
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Are there any regular opportunities for
university-sponsored prestige lectures
linking differing aspects of the
university's engineering work?
Design teaching and projects
Specific questions should be asked
concerning the practice of engineering
design teaching within the institution. For
example:
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Is there a design teaching forum or group in
the faculty?
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Is there a faculty-wide design co-ordinator?
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Are there opportunities for
interdisciplinary design awareness and
projects?
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What is the allocation of time and
facilities to design teaching?
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How is design teaching integrated with
course work generally?
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How is the development of design practice
from year to year handled?
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Are projects graded to suit earlier and
later years? Has a single developing project
ever been used for successive years?
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What use is made of design and
problem-solving workshops?
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Is attention given to the design
requirements of 'concurrent' engineering or
of 'retro-engineering', the analysis of
existing components or assemblies?
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Is a reference library of useful design
projects maintained?
Use of non-academic tutors
It is common practice in most universities
to make use of industrial visiting lecturers
but such visitors are not often encouraged
to contribute to a wide spread of the
university's activities or to form teams.
In addition to teaching in specialist
subjects, or in contributing case studies of
interesting projects, visitors can be asked
to contribute to course reviews, to take
part in project assessment, etc. Practices
should be investigated along the following
lines:
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Is there collaboration with industry on
defining design projects and on industrial
and vacation placements?
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Many visitors appear only to conduct classes
or take part in project workshops. Do they
meet many staff members and take part in
regular reviews? Is there a regular
opportunity to meet, perhaps informally,
during working lunches, for example?
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Do visitors arrange reciprocal visits to
their workplaces for staff and students?
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Do visitors enable students to participate
in 'live' project work?
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Has any use been made of student
proctoring/mentoring?
Research, consultancy and postgraduate work
A university's research, consultancy and
postgraduate work can potentially make a
significant contribution to teaching at
undergraduate level. The involvement of
visitors in undergraduate work can lead to
an expansion of their contribution into the
postgraduate area, perhaps in MSc courses
and research.
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Is there any design-orientated research work
in hand?
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Is there a relationship between research and
design teaching practice?
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How valuable is consultancy work in
maintaining awareness of current design
practice?
Close collaboration with industry in
developing relevant postgraduate courses to
meet specific needs, perhaps even local or
'in-house' training programmes, is valuable.
Do visitors contribute to such postgraduate
course development and delivery?
Relating audit to needs
Design in industry is
almost always multidisciplinary and extends
over a significant period of time. The
process is not easy to simulate within the
constraints of undergraduate courses. An
analysis of teaching practices relating to
the points identified in the review of The
Academy's visiting professor scheme and to
current practices in other universities
shows that distinct benefits accrue from a
greater degree of collaboration between
industry and academe.
It is suggested that
short reviews of procedures be made in each
important area cited above, and that these
are perhaps best achieved by collaboration
between a staff member and an experienced
visiting industrial teacher. The questions
listed above would form a suitable check
list for such reviews. Points arising from
the assessment overall could then be
discussed at faculty level to see where
beneficial changes might be made to current
practices, how these changes would be
implemented and how the effects of change
would be monitored.
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