Leveraging Student Co-op Design Experience Using Case Studies

All engineering students at Waterloo participate in the co-op program, wherein they gain work experience whilst completing their degrees. A requirement of the program is that students complete a set of 4 work term reports to document this experience. These work term reports represents a diverse source of engineering experience which has not been tapped in any consistent way. A group has been set up at the University of Waterloo to investigate the development of engineering design case studies from students’ work term reports. In its most general form, a design case study represents a real situation and real data, from which students can learn to apply engineering science and design principles. They can be used to provide context for material covered in courses throughout the curriculum, to integrate material covered in several courses, and to illustrate the multidisciplinary nature of most real problems. Realistic case studies can be very motivating, particularly if they have been derived from the experience of their colleagues. The long-term goal of the group is to provide students with the option of submitting engineering design case studies in lieu of work term reports. Work to date has focused on the development and use of example case studies. The structure of engineering design cases is presented and contrasted with current work report requirements. Experience gained to date is discussed, along with quality control, case distribution, and intellectual property issues.