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Unit information: Research & Communications 4 in 2019/20

Please note: Due to alternative arrangements for teaching and assessment in place from 18 March 2020 to mitigate against the restrictions in place due to COVID-19, information shown for 2019/20 may not always be accurate.

Please note: you are viewing unit and programme information for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.

Unit name Research & Communications 4
Unit code CENG30012
Credit points 10
Level of study H/6
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director Mr. Jon Sims Williams
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

Successful completion of years 1 and 2 of the H150 Engineering Design degree

Co-requisites

None

School/department Department of Civil Engineering
Faculty Faculty of Engineering

Description including Unit Aims

Students are required to research and give a 20 minute presentation on a current issue of interest to the Engineering Profession. They will then write a formal paper on the topic. The issue is taken from a list of questions on social, economic, legal and environmental issues relevant to the present time. This Socratic approach to students doing Research and then teaching requires a high level of maturity in the student understanding of topics as well as a sophisticated approach to learning and matching their presentation to the other students level of understanding.

Students will be given guidance prior to their presentations and both peer and staff feedback afterwards. TurnitIn will be used to give clear feedback on their written papers.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of the course the students will be able:

  • describe social, economic, legal and environmental issues of relevance to the engineering profession
  • to produce a professional presentation, executive summary and detailed report on such issues
  • to apply research skills in order to analyse and evaluate the impact of such issues.

Teaching Information

Students learn by doing. They give presentations and learn what can go wrong and how to be more effective. There is a lot of feedback from other students on their presentations as well as from staff. The number of sessions each student should attend will depend on the cohort size (eg 20 lectures for 30 students).

Assessment Information

20 minute talk and 2 minute question session (45%)

A 10 page journal paper (45%)

Review colleague papers (6%)

Feedback on peer presentations (4%)

Reading and References

Changes each year and for each student.

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