23WS71META - Holistic Engineering

Aims:

The aim of this module is for the student to understand the range of challenges thrown up by complex engineering projects and the techniques that can be applied to overcome them. Whilst the nature of the role of engineering has evolved markedly over recent decades, it is the ability to take that role's holistic perspective that the module aims to develop in the student. This perspective can be associated with the role of Chief Engineer and the course gives a 21st century view of what the role of Chief Engineer entails.


Intended Learning Outcomes:

1.Knowledge and Understanding
- Describe their broad appreciation & contextual knowledge of the industrial projects, enterprises, environments and stakeholders associated with complex engineered products & services, by being able to:
- Explain and illustrate how engineering highly integrated systems can both create added value and introduce unwanted risk throughout the system lifecycle
- Identify and describe key engineering roles, including that of Chief Engineer, and what they contribute in complex, multi-disciplinary engineering enterprises
- Evaluate and critically appraise the strengths and weaknesses of commercially available systems engineering methods, tools and techniques using the essential systems principles (described under Practical skills ILO 1
- Demonstrate the structure and judge the value of the Engineering Management Plan in the context of the systems lifecycle.

2.Subject-Specific - Practical Skills
- Interpret and apply the essential principles of a systems approach to formulate, construct and evaluate systems models of real world products and processes, by being able to:
- Describe and inter-relate real world & modelling world complex entities
- Describe and apply integrated product and process modelling, principles of system hierarchy using black box / white box modelling, principles of attribute emergence, absorption and retention, and modelling using intrinsic and extrinsic processes
- Describe and apply the Universal System Equation
- Critically evaluate the limitations of models

3.Key Transferable Skills
- To critically appraise a wide range of methods and tools for engineering analysis and design.


Content:

The design of the course provides real advantage to students of either the industrially experienced category, to whom the underpinning systems theory will be stretching and challenging, or the academic category (final year UG or post graduate) to whom the industrial application experience will be unfamiliar. Three of the 5 teaching days are a sandwich of theory lectures surrounding an industrial session by a visiting Chief Engineer from the military aircraft industry (which on the first day is the course leader). The content, the systems approach taken and the learning achieved are sufficiently transferable to other engineering domains and industrial sectors for any student to benefit from taking this module. 

The module will push the boundaries of multi-disciplinary engineering through a mixture of practical experiences on hugely demanding programmes, and an exploration of the current state of theory as it applies to such programmes. The case studies from real programmes will be used to illuminate a range of critical topics including requirements definition, problem analysis, system architecture, the product/service lifecycle, engineering organisation design etc, which will then be subject to rigorous exploration in the theory and practical sessions. 

The theory lectures include short challenges and assignments as well as linking to evening assignments designed to practice the application of the learning on small, manageable problems. The industry sessions with the Chief Engineer comprise a 60-90min lecture, followed by a structured session designed to make the students question the Chief Engineer, and then reflect on the answers and extract the links between the theory and the applied industrial experience of large, sometimes unmanageable problems. 

The systems perspective, holistic in its approach to solution lifecycle, the role of products, their missions and functions, the role of services, the contextual impact of solutions, their environmental impact and stakeholder interest management, will provide a framework for understanding the means to achieve multi-disciplinary engineering solutions to physical engineering problems.