Session: 09-11-01: Engineering Research Innovation I
Paper Number: 67913
Start Time: Tuesday, 03:30 PM
67913 - Aligning Research Objectives With Student Learning Outcomes and Sustainability Objectives in Student Engineering Development Project
The Bachelor of Engineering Technology Final Year Project paper is based on the Sydney Accord hence should cover its graduate attributes and intended learning outcomes. To achieve high standard projects, we have selected project ideas to inform tasks on an overarching research output. The aim of the research project is to prototype a structural connector to support rooftop solar tiles that the solar tiles do not compromise the water-tightness of the roof. A group of four students were selected to work on this project and the milestones were distributed between them. The student’s project investigates how research project objectives may be integrated into student projects and how student projects may be aligned to the broader institutional goal of sustainability. The main research project aimed to address the issues with installing solar panels on tiles for New Zealand houses. To ensure a weathertight house, we investigate possible solutions for three problems with the roof-mounted solar tile design: (1) structural damage due to uplift from the wind; (2) oxidization of the mounting unit due to weather conditions; and (3) water ingress issues of the rooftop due to poor installation. The main aim of this project is to design and develop a well-engineered solar roof tile and mount that is superior to the existing products available. This requires alignment of the objectives of the academics’ research project with the intended learning outcomes of the students’ Final Year Project course. The paper also explores how student projects can incorporate broader sustainability goals (in line with the mission of the institution) and contribute to wider stakeholder groups through improving the user experience with sustainable energy solutions.
To generate student projects that effectively inform tasks on a main project, and enable students to participate in the development of a solution to a problem that affects user satisfaction with renewable energy solutions. This research contains a reflection on the mapping of project’s requirements to learning outcomes of the engineering development project paper. Alignment to the goals and learning outcomes of the course will be discussed as well as broader implications for service learning and the potential for the project to be adapted to meet broader institutional objectives such as sustainability will be presented.
In conclusion, this paper describes the mapping of the graduate attributes and the learning outcomes in student projects to objectives of the main project, reflects on the achievement of these learning outcomes in the context of a project that fully explores all of them, and describes the service-learning potential for this type of student project.
Presenting Author: Mohammad Al-Rawi Centre for Engineering and Industrial Design - Waikato Institute of Technology
Authors:
Mohammad Al-Rawi Waikato Institute of TechnologyPraneel Chand Waikato Institute of Technology
Jai Khanna Waikato Institute of Technology
Aligning Research Objectives With Student Learning Outcomes and Sustainability Objectives in Student Engineering Development Project
Paper Type
Technical Paper Publication