Course Title: Automotive Project 1

Part A: Course Overview

Course Title: Automotive Project 1

Credit Points: 12.00

Terms

Course Code	Campus	Career	School	Learning Mode	Teaching Period(s)
AUTO1027	City Campus	Postgraduate	115H Aerospace, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering	Face-to-Face	Sem 1 2008, Sem 2 2008, Sem 1 2009, Sem 2 2009, Sem 1 2010, Sem 1 2011, Sem 1 2012, Sem 1 2013

Course Coordinator: Dr Lucien Koopmans

Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 99256122

Course Coordinator Email: lucien.koopmans@rmit.edu.au

Course Coordinator Location: 251.3.53

Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities

None

Course Description

This course aims to provide a practical and creative outlet for the technical skills being developed in the other courses offered within the Master of Engineering (International Automotive Engineering) program. The primary focus of the course is to develop your personal communication and management skills in a real-world project situation. The Automotive Project 1 & 2 courses will develop your ability to apply technical expertise to a real-world automotive design problem, whilst enhancing your social and business skills through guided group project work and topical guest lectures.
In this course, you will form project teams to undertake a collaborative automotive design project, to the extent of submitting a comprehensive analysis study by the end of semester. Automotive Project 1 focuses on the early stages of the design process, and as such you will be concentrating on the conceptualization and planning of an automotive subsystems design project. Scope and topic of the project will be structured to align with the design, manufacturing and computational skills being developed by the team members in their concurrent courses.
Consultation with industry professionals has stressed the need for engineers to not only be technically skilled, but also to be highly capable in the social and business aspects of professional life. These generic capabilities include the ability to lead and work in teams, resolve conflicts, innovate, research, negotiate, and communicate in a wide range of contexts.
A feature of the Automotive Project courses is that we specifically aim to develop such generic capabilities. Guidance will be provided through mentoring from the course leaders, and also through professional guest speakers on relevant project management topics.
Emphasis will be placed on team self-management. As a team you will be expected to assess your own pooled resources (experience, technical skills, etc), and the skills you will be developing in the concurrent courses, to develop a management plan to navigate your way through the project requirements

Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development

In summary, this course develops the following graduate capabilities:

• Holistic understanding of the product automobile:
To this effect, you will acquire comprehensive understanding of the systems approach to sustainable design and development of automotive technology. Also, you will acquire in-depth knowledge of methods, techniques and procedures within the cross-disciplinary development process of modern automobiles.

• Problem solving and decision making skills:
To this effect you will acquire specialist knowledge required for advanced analysis and synthesis of automotive technologies. This program will provide you the opportunity to pursue projects, that address real life problems, in cooperation with industry both locally and internationally. This will allow you to develop intuition, judgement, and result interpretation capabilities.

• Advanced technical competence:
You will be capable of implementing advanced technical concepts based on Engineering science. This will involve modelling, simulation, testing, correlation and validation techniques, and tools used in the development of the various components and subsystems of the automobile. You will be able to use this knowledge in a design and production context.

• Working in teams and networks:
You will be required to work collaboratively with peers to achieve a common goal. In an attempt to mirror workplace practice, you will have the opportunity to assume different roles. In so doing, it is intended that you will acquire a deep sense of team and network membership responsibilities and obligations, using sound project management skills.

• Leadership:
You will be provided with opportunities to work in cross-disciplinary and international teams in order to develop leadership qualities such as: creative thinking and innovation, cross-cultural and cross-discipline communication skills. In addition, you will develop capabilities which will empower you to initiate and facilitate technological change and innovation in the automotive industry, and to meet new environmental and safety challenges in particular.

• Research:
You will be required to conduct research, including benchmarking and scientific analysis and report on new industry trends in order to keep abreast with emerging technologies.

• International and cultural awareness:
This program is international in character and outlook. It provides you with the opportunity to obtain work and research experience at multinational companies around the world. In this way, you will be concomitantly exposed to state of the art infrastructure and to different work ethics and cultural environments.

Summary of Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course you will have the skills to:
• Research an automotive design topic to the extent of a submitting a lifecycle analysis report
• Manage the early conceptual design phase of an automotive design project
• Decide between conceptual design alternatives using state-of-the-art engineering techniques.
• Plan for the full product lifecycle of an automotive system
• Work effectively in a professional team environment
• Lead a team of professional peers through a conceptual design task

Overview of Learning Activities

Weekly lectures/discussion will introduce how we analyse, evaluate, examine, and optimize subsystems of vehicles. Focus for the semester will be on independent subsystems that are accessory for vehicle functioning. So students can analyze and prepare written reports on a product’s impact on the wider environment. This is an increasingly important skill in today’s environmentally aware marketplace.
Guest speakers from within the automotive industry/academia will also be introduced during the semester, to give students a first-hand view of project issues as experienced in the workplace.

Overview of Learning Resources

Microsoft Project or similar software for the purposes of project management.

Specific texts and/or reference books

Journal papers and other relevant published articles

Analytical software, dependent on individual project area.

Assessment will based on weekly report, weekly contribution, final report, and final presentation.

Overview of Assessment

Assessment in this course is based on the following tasks:
a) Group Project – This will entail submission of a mid-term minor report and an end of term group report relating to your project. These reports will assess your applied technical competence, your research skills and your ability to manage the early conceptual stage of a design project. The minor assignment will be structured to introduce you to the philosophies of project assessment, whilst the final group project will test your application of a real-world project. The reports will be submitted as a team, to encourage team self-management.
b) Group Presentation – as a team you will present to the class a Final Presentation, summarizing your semester’s research and the life-cycle plan of your automotive system. These presentations will be held in an open forum atmosphere to encourage group debate and shared learning. You will be assessed on both your technical content and the quality of your team’s presentation.