Meeting engineering learning objectives through team based creative robot construction

Working in teams is a necessary skill for all undergraduate Engineering students. Indeed for many accreditation bodies for undergraduate engineers around the world it is a mandatory attribute. Undergraduate students at Monash University meet this requirement through means of carefully engineered team based learning exercises which develop team work, collaboration, lateral thinking and problem solving as well as the often necessary conflict resolution. ECE3091 is a level 3 unit in the department of Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering at Monash University. Students undertake the design, construction, testing and demonstration of a group project in one semester. The projects are designed to fulfill the needs of the learning objectives, the technical and social skills as well as be manageable in the time available and most important of all, be fun and rewarding. This paper discusses the types of projects devised for this exercise and typical solutions.