Engineering Group Project Part A - ELE00093H

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  • Department: Electronic Engineering
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2025-26

Module summary

This module further develops the team-working skills introduced in the first and second year projects, this time applied to a self-driving vehicle(s) to efficiently and intelligently map the chemical and/or physical characteristics e.g, pH, temperature, tubidity, of a closed body of water. The first part of the project will require students to select and design, informed by customer requirements, the hardware and software for the vehicle(s), including sensors and actuators. Based on this design, students will complete the fabrication, construction, verification and validation of floating vehicle(s) to efficiently and intelligently map the chemical and/or physical characteristics of a closed body of water.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 1 2025-26

Module aims

Subject content aims:

The third-year MEng design group project provides the final step in the sequence of projects before the capstone individual project. It aims to develop all the engineering design and transferable skills described in programme documents and detailed in the MLOs below.

Graduate skills aims:

  • To develop skills in applying knowledge learned in class to a challenging hands-on project

  • To consolidate and further develop skills in teamwork, engineering design and project management

  • To develop skills in technical writing and dissemination to both technical and non-technical audiences

  • To develop skills in effective communications with team members in charge of the mechanical, electrical, software aspects of the robot and sensor design

Module learning outcomes

After successful completion of this module, students will be able to:

  • Select and engage with technical literature in the pursuance of the project, critically evaluating and applying the information as appropriate

  • Analyse a complex requirements document, and devise specifications and a response to tender document for a self-driving vehicle to autonomously sample, test and report on water quality at predetermined waypoints. The product should be considered as one that may be offered for sale as a finished product.

  • Apply knowledge of mathematics and engineering principles to the design of a complex system for data gathering. The data will be processed and relayed back to a base station wirelessly in real time.

  • Apply a systems approach to the design of a complex system to design innovative solutions to a complex problem involving hardware, software, and system interconnection, considering stakeholder requirements. (Commercial, legislative, and diverse users)

  • Apply knowledge of engineering management principles to a successful project specifically including project planning and management.

  • Select and apply appropriate mechanical, computational and analytic techniques to model complex systems, and recognise and discuss in reports the limitations of the approaches. Solutions are required to navigate a known water course and gather water samples. Sensors should be designed to autonomously test the samples. Tests may include pH, turbidity and temperature.

  • Demonstrate the technical and practical impact of engineering design on new products on society, planning a business and product with respect to sustainability (including the full product lifecycle), ethical design, inclusion (especially in user design), risk (by following and documenting a risk management process) and security. A particular focus should be made on environmental impact of your prototype

  • Describe and reflect on the role and effectiveness of quality management systems in a project

  • Function effectively as part of a team and describe the skills required for successful team-working, evaluating and reflecting on their own performance and that of the group

  • Communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences on complex engineering matters, and discuss the effectiveness of that communication in mentoring meetings

  • Plan and record self-learning and development, via weekly record-keeping, and reflection on the team and their own skills in the final report

  • Discuss security measures generally and specifically those employed with respect to safety and protection of product intellectual property.

  • Discuss any general ethical issues which may be present in the conduct of this project. You should also consider the ethics of the profit motive in commercial engineering.

Module content

This group project will require individual groups to develop a self-driving floating vehicle(s) that can navigate a closed body of water, collect water samples at well-defined locations and perform analysis of the physical, chemical and/or biological characteristics of the sample. In Part A of the project, groups will deliver detailed designs and specifications of the system and associated sub-systems that consider customer requirements alongside technical, financial, regulatory and other constraints. Specifically, groups will:

  • Produce a detailed technical specification of the full product and associated subsystems based on customer requirements coupled with simulation and initial experimental trials e.g. materials analysis, manufacturing approaches. Students will be expected to demonstrate good quality design philosophies for all software, electronic, electrical and mechanical subsystems and produce a full Bill of Materials for their product and a drawing set complying with current published standards to enable their product to be manufactured.

  • Groups will produce a full intended operational environmental specification, statement about the expected life of their product and associated subsystems (such as any required batteries) and how all of these should be disposed of at the end of the product's useful life, taking into account WEE, COSHH and other relevant legislation.

  • Groups will be required to produce an integration and test plan for their product and produce a formal risk register.

In the second part of the project, individuals will manufacture, test and refine the product sub-systems, work with other members of the group to integrate the sub-systems and evaluate the performance of the complete system against design specifications. Specifically, groups will:

  • Informed by the technical specifications developed during the first part of the project, students will manufacture and assemble the individual components of the system, test and robustly evaluate the performance against technical specifications and, as necessary, modify and refine designs. Students will be expected to demonstrate good quality test philosophies for the software, electronic, electrical and mechanical aspects of their project.

  • Informed by the integration and test plan developed in Part A, students will integrate the product subsystems, evaluate and refine their performance to demonstrate the completed product meets the client agreed specification, in terms of technical, financial, regulatory and other constraints. Groups will be required to produce documentation that fully describes the completed system including operating manual and detailed test results.

Groups will be expected to establish their own group structure and communications, coordination and control mechanisms to ensure they complete the project in an efficient and effective manner. Students will be expected to critically review the group's performance in their individual report. Students will be expected to manage their own meetings, planning them with agendas, keeping records of meetings and tracking their own actions. This will include all internal team progress meetings, all product development process meetings (design reviews, etc.) and all meetings with clients or clients' representatives.

Indicative assessment

Task % of module mark
Groupwork 30.0
Oral presentation/seminar/exam 70.0

Special assessment rules

None

Indicative reassessment

Task % of module mark
Essay/coursework 100.0

Module feedback

'Feedback’ at a university level can be understood as any part of the learning process which is designed to guide your progress through your degree programme. We aim to help you reflect on your own learning and help you feel more clear about your progress through clarifying what is expected of you in both formative and summative assessments. A comprehensive guide to feedback and to forms of feedback is available in the Guide to Assessment Standards, Marking and Feedback.

The School of PET aims to provide some form of feedback on all formative and summative assessments that are carried out during the degree programme. In general, feedback on any written work/assignments undertaken will be sufficient so as to indicate the nature of the changes needed in order to improve the work. The School will endeavour to return all exam feedback within the timescale set out in the University's Policy on Assessment Feedback Turnaround Time. The School would normally expect to adhere to the times given, however, it is possible that exceptional circumstances may delay feedback. The School will endeavour to keep such delays to a minimum. Please note that any marks released are subject to ratification by the Board of Examiners and Senate. Meetings at the start/end of each term provide you with an opportunity to discuss and reflect with your supervisor on your overall performance to date.

Formative feedback:

Supervision meetings will provide an opportunity for groups and individuals to discuss their project and assignment plans with academics

Regular laboratory sessions allow you to engage with the project and receive verbal help and feedback on your designs.

Emails to the Module Coordinator with questions / comments will be answered as soon as possible.

Summative feedback:

Written feedback on coursework will include discussion of evidence of critical thinking, justification for critical technical decisions, group structure and report structure and style.

Indicative reading

TBC