EGH419 Advanced Design and Entrepreneurship

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Gardens Point, Internal

Overview

This unit introduces you to advanced design practice and fundamental entrepreneurial concepts. The unit combines skills in electrical engineering with entrepreneurship.

You will work in a team and apply your new knowledge in entrepreneurship to devise an idea for an artefact that solves a customer’s problem or satisfies a demand in the market. You will learn how to think about a business case for your idea, identify potential customers and analyse the market situation.

In your team, you will apply advanced design methods to evaluate your product or service idea based on its technology feasibility, desirability, and commercial viability.

You will heavily draw on the project management and team skills learned in the previous project units
EGB240 or EGB220 and EGB320.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. dentify a problem that can be solved by applying electrical or mechatronic engineering and design a complex system using appropriate information, engineering methods, and technologies.
2. Demonstrate introductory knowledge of key entrepreneurial concepts to create a business plan, designed to market a complex electrical or mechatronics product or service to potential customers. 
3. Compose a professional business plan and associated documentation that describes, quantitatively evaluates, and defends the technological feasibility, customer desirability, and business viability of a complex electrical or mechatronic product at a mastered level. 
4. Demonstrate leadership, creativity, and initiative in both self-directed and collaborative contexts of professional engineering practice, utilising project development and management techniques.
5. Engage stakeholders or potential customers in a professional context and effectively communicate your concept, value proposition and expected outcome.

Content

Learning Approaches

You can expect the following timetabled activities in this unit:

• Learning activities that introduce you to fundamental concepts of entrepreneurship. You have the opportunity to interact with the lecturers and get deep feedback on your product ideas and design progress.
• Laboratory: The team project requires the design, implementation, documentation and basic marketing of a product or artefact that incorporates engineering techniques. The project runs over the entire semester and culminates in a demonstration of the product at the end of the unit. 

In addition to timetabled activities, you are expected to self-organise your work in your team, hold
regular team meetings, apply your knowledge of agile project management techniques, document your
progress in all stages of the project, conduct experiments and evaluation of your prototype, as well as
prepare reports, demonstrations and presentations.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Feedback will be given regularly throughout the semester by tutors and lecturers, following your oral and written presentations of project ideas, plan, design, execution and progress early, mid-semester and at the end of the semester. Tutors and lecturers are available for feedback and advice in the lab sessions.

In addition, you are encouraged to view your team and other teams as a learning community and share and constructively discuss emerging ideas during all phases of the project.

Assessment

Overview

Assessment in this unit will be based on a semester-long team project. As a team and individually, you will be assessed on a mix of written formal reports, a product pitch demonstration and practical prototype demonstrations.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Ideation and proposed project management plan

Your Product Pitch and Project Proposal Report will communicate entrepreneurial
aspects of your project idea, such as value proposition, customer segment and market
analysis, customer analysis, literature and patent research, as well as prototype scope,
requirements and specifications, and a project plan and budget.

Individually you will describe your individual component design considerations,
requirements and specifications, as well as approach and solution ideas.

Assessment: Business plan proposal

A group submission of a Progress report describing: 

• Business Opportunity / Problem  
• Innovation, proposed solution, prototype  
• Engineering design  
• Financial and market analysis  
• Risk and sustainability analysis 

Each student is assigned a role. They work on a section of the business plan proposal and merge it to create a single doc for submission. 

Assessment: Final Business Plan and Presentation 

Business plan 

A group submission of the whole business plan document. A template will be given. 

Each student is assigned a role. They work on a section of the business plan proposal and merge to create a single doc for submission) 15% Group 15% individual.   

 Presentation 

A group oral presentation to describe and defend the business plan before a panel. Each student presents their contribution. 

Marked 10% group and 10% individual contribution. 

 Peer evaluation 

Each student gets assessed by their group mates based on their contribution to group work and business plan. 

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Risk Assessment Statement

You will undertake lectures in the traditional classrooms and lecture theatres. As such, there are no
extraordinary workplace health and safety issues associated with these components of the unit.

You will be required to undertake practical sessions in the laboratory under the supervision of the teaching
team and technical staff of the faculty. In any laboratory, you will be advised of requirements of safe and
responsible behaviour and will be required to wear appropriate protective items (e.g. closed shoes).

You will undergo a health and safety induction before the commencement of the practical sessions and will
be issued with a safety induction card. If you do not have a safety induction card you will be denied access
to laboratories.

Standards/Competencies

This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.

Engineers Australia Stage 1 Competency Standard for Professional Engineer

1: Knowledge and Skill Base

1. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
2. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 

2: Engineering Application Ability

1. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
2. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
3. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
4. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 

3: Professional and Personal Attributes

1. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
2. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
3. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
4. 
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 

Course Learning Outcomes

EN01 Bachelor of Engineering (Honours)

1. Engage stakeholders professionally and communicate the outcomes of your work effectively to expert and non-expert audiences using appropriate modes.
   Relates to: ULO2, ULO4
2. Display leadership, creativity, and initiative in both self-directed and collaborative contexts of professional engineering practice.
   Relates to: ULO3, Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
3. Manage projects to solve complex engineering problems, using appropriate information, engineering methods, and technologies.
   Relates to: ULO5, Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
4. Deploy appropriate approaches to engineering design and quality.
   Relates to: ULO1, Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
5. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of one engineering discipline, its research directions, and its application in contemporary professional engineering practice.
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 

EN55 Master of Professional Engineering

1. Apply advanced and specialist knowledge, concepts and practices in engineering design, analysis management and sustainability.
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
2. Critically analyse and evaluate complex engineering problems to achieve research informed solutions.
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
3. Apply systematic approaches to plan, design, execute and manage an engineering project.
   Relates to: Final Business Plan and Presentation 
4. Communicate complex information effectively and succinctly, presenting high level reports, arguments and justifications in oral, written and visual forms to professional and non specialist audiences.
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Business plan proposal, Final Business Plan and Presentation 
5. Organise and manage time, tasks and projects independently, and collaboratively demonstrating the values and principles that shape engineering decision making and professional accountability.
   Relates to: Ideation and proposed project management plan, Final Business Plan and Presentation