Professional Aspects of Engineering

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Critically evaluate real-world professional engineering scenarios (e.g. in terms of ethics, risk, sustainability and legal compliance) and potential solutions
• Explain relevant commercial, social and environment contexts, constraints and challenges faced by Chartered Engineers
• Describe and explain the application of relevant practises related to business (including risk evaluation and management, and budgeting ), management (including project and people management) and leadership (including change management)
• Describe and apply appropriately basic descriptive and inferential statistical methods to analyse professional engineering problems and evaluate potential solutions
• Explain relevant legal, regulatory and ethical frameworks within which Chartered Engineers must operate

Full CEng Programme Level Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• The students are asked to complete a design assignment which whose marks constitute 30% of the total marks available. The assignment involves the conceptual acoustic design of a chamber music hall to RIBA stage 2.
• A lecture is given on the issue of sustainability in engineering generally, starting with the challenges posed by planetary boundaries, including CO2 emissions. An in-class exercise involves specification of sustainable materials for acoustics and an invited lecture is presented on sustainable building design and acoustical implications.
• A lecture is presented that introduces three of the main theories from moral philosophy directed at the solution of ethical problems. Examples are given of modern ethical dilemmas (e.g., the “trolley problem” of self-driving cars) and the Royal Academy of Engineering code of practice is presented. Students confront ethical dilemmas in engineering in an in-class exercise.
• Continuing professional development is dealt with during the introductory lecture to the module which sets out the expectations of the Engineering Council regarding chartered engineer status.
• A lecture is presented that covers both physical security and cyber-security. The risk-based analysis of security is presented where analysis of threat actors’ capability and intentions combine to give a threat risk. Victim’s vulnerability combines with the threat to determine the threat likelihood. Students will carry out an in-class activity on the security risk assessment.
• Lectures are given on personality, covering topics such as the “big five” personality traits, their early origin and comparison with the widely used Myers Briggs Type Indicator. Theories of need and motivation are presented together with analysis of group and team dynamics. Leadership and management are discussed, including transformational and charismatic leadership with an associated in-class exercise.
• A lecture is presented on literature searching, introducing the main search tools available and giving guidance on the use of the internet for searching through technical literature. In-class exercises also require student to undertake internet searches and interpret results.
• The issues of equality, diversity, and inclusion are presented and framed within the context of the UK 2010 equality act. Positive discrimination and positive action are described. A further lecture is presented on gender equitable research with specific examples from transportation research.
• Lectures are given on project management starting with the history of the topic ranging from Gantt charts, via the PERT method, to critical path analysis. The PRINCE2 (projects in controlled environments) method is discussed in detail together with agile project management methods derived from software engineering. Change management is also discussed.
• The issues of quality management will be introduced in lectures. Students will carry out an in-class activity on the topic of ensuring that quality standards are met.
• A lecture on technical writing is presented with the emphasis on preparation for writing technical reports and dissertations. However, emphasis is also given to how style and content of presentation should be adapted to the intended audience. All in-class exercises also include a report back style presentation with presenters nominated within each group. All students should thus get the opportunity to present to the class on behalf of their group.
• Basic statistics is taught over four two-hour workshops, including distributions, descriptive statistics, introduction to SPSS, regression and inferential statistics, t-test, experimental design and power, anovas and nonparametric tests. Calculation methods based on fundamental acoustical relationships are also used consistently through the module.
• A lecture is presented on risk analysis, including basic concepts of probability and impact, illustrated with examination of the UK national risk register. An in-class exercise is conducted on the analysis of acoustical risks in a building with noisy machinery.

The context

• You: the ethical engineer (including honesty, integrity, respect for law, life and the environment)
• Relevant legal, regulatory and ethical frameworks, including the IMechE code of conduct for engineers
• Environmental, economic and social sustainability

Practises

• Business (including risk evaluation and management, and budgeting)
• Management (including project and people management)
• Leadership (including change management)

Statistics

• Experimental design
• Descriptive and inferential statistics
• Hypothesis testing
• Effect sizes and statistical power

Application

• Acoustical engineering design
• Industrial case studies

Lectures and seminars with discussion

Computer labs and tutorials

Group workshops

Independent study

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.