Developing student skills through industry-aligned and team-focussed design projects

Design projects in undergraduate engineering degrees provide the mechanism to develop a student's ability to plan, research, conduct and manage a complex design task. They also offer the opportunity to foster generic graduate attributes that help provide graduates with the skills and abilities to succeed in an industrial career. A capstone unit "Design Project" has been developed at the Australian Maritime College that allows students to integrate knowledge acquired during their previous years of study. The design projects are conducted in multi-disciplinary teams allowing a focus on the development of teamwork skills as well as systems engineering proficiency and communication skills. The design projects are industry aligned, thus requiring interaction by the team with external industry clients. © 2013: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects.