Using CAL to broaden design experience for undergraduate engineers

This paper describes how a CAL exercise has been developed to provide undergraduate Civil Engineering students with the type of open ended design problem that they encounter in practice. The exercise forms part of the second year course in hydraulics at Queen Mary College and specifically relates to the design of pipe networks for water supply. The package is divided into three phases. The first of these tests the students' understanding of the basic theoretical concepts underlying pipe network analysis. The second phase is designed to familiarise the student with the way large and complex networks behave and how they respond to changes either in their layout or in the demands placed upon them. The final phase of the exercise involves the students in a completely open ended and realistic design problem, resulting from a proposed industrial development in the area of the supply network. The student is required to place himself or herself in the position of a manager of a water company who has to arrive at the cheapest viable solution from a wide range of options. This is very much the type of broad ranging design and management problem that occurs in practice. The package, which replaced a traditional laboratory experiment, has been running for two years now. The response of the students has been encouraging and many show sufficient interest to book additional computer time in order to develop and complete the design to their own satisfaction. As a teaching tool it has enabled us to identify those students who have the competence to synthesise rather than just analyse a problem, and this, in most areas of practising engineering, may be the more important ability.