UWA ENSC1003

Introduction to Professional Engineering

Assignment 2
Engineers without Borders

Semester 1 2021

Version 1.0
 Revision History
Date Version Description Author
24 March 2021 V1.0 Assignment 2 brief BB

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 Table of Contents
1.  Specification for project 4 
1.1  Background 4 

2.  Scope of project 4 

2.1  Introduction 4 
2.2  Definition of the problem 5 
2.3  Tasks 5 
2.4  Required outputs 7 
2.5  Format of written report 7 

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 Assignment 2
1. Specification for project

1.1 Background
Engineers have to work in, and design for, a large range of external environments. You may
work on a project situated on a remote mine site where geological and water resources are
critical, and indigenous expectations must be considered. You may work on an oil and gas
platform in the middle of the ocean, where platform stability and risk of cyclones are critical, and
environmental impact must be considered. You may work on telecommunications for the
agricultural sector, where farmers’ needs and practices must be considered. Every project has
specific, and sometimes unique, contexts that must be understood, and incorporated into your
engineering design.
Understanding how a particular engineering design might be used (and possibly mis-used) by
people is an essential step in the design process. Understanding the user’s desires and
expectations of technology is critical, as is predicting how those expectations might change over
the coming years (during the life-cycle of your design).
The challenges of project context, and understanding community needs, desires and expectations,
are acute when engineers work in developing countries. The so-called “humanitarian
engineering” sector is very large, and major projects are being undertaken across the world at
any time; this sector provides an exciting and fulfilling career path for engineers. However,
understanding when and how to adjust your engineering design, to align with the context of the
country and its needs and expectations, requires careful consideration.
This assignment provides you an opportunity to explore a very different environmental, social
and economic context, and how that context impacts engineering design. You will critique and
analyse the risk of your design options, and understand environmental, legal, ethical, health and
safety impacts of engineering in a remote region. You will also learn to work systematically in a
team, within the framework of the engineering method; the project will also provide an
opportunity to develop and practice your engineering project management skills.
This assignment is supported by the Australian division of the not-for-profit organisation
Engineers Without Borders (https://edu.ewbchallenge.org/). EWB holds a national design
competition in December and UWA will send the student team that has completed the best
design.

2. Scope of project

2.1 Introduction
Engineering solutions to infrastructure challenges require consideration of the social,
environmental and political contexts. Solutions designed by engineers with little understanding
of these contexts may fail technically, may become financial liabilities for the target community,
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or may simply not reach the users they were intended for. In this assignment, you will learn
about the development challenges, as well as the social, environmental and political contexts of
Cape York Peninsula.
This year’s EWB Challenge design brief focuses on the Centre for Appropriate Technology’s
work with indigenous communities on Cape York Peninsula.
You are encouraged to dive deep into the context as you develop your design concept. Utilise all
the resources available to you to immerse yourself in the local environment and culture, and to
start to uncover the opportunities and challenges that will influence your proposal. By taking the
time to understand your project context, you will develop an idea that is not only technically
feasible, but appropriate and exciting for your stakeholders.

2.2 Definition of the problem

Most students have worked in teams throughout high school, and in other parts of their lives, but
may have an incomplete understanding of what contributes to high performance teams. Further,
the challenges facing engineers implementing engineering infrastructure may not be fully
understood. This project specifically aims to develop
1) An understanding of how you might approach engineering taking account of context.
2) An understanding of what processes support teams to function well.
3) An understanding of different roles in teams, and also how conflict resolution becomes
critical for good teamwork.
4) An ability to manage time and effort across a medium-sized project, to ensure its
successful completion.
This assignment requires you to address these four areas via team research and by summarising
your findings in a team report.

2.3 Tasks
1. Plan your project, including allocation and scheduling of your time. Create a Gantt chart of
your expected project schedule, and keep track of how you travel against your plan. Include
this schedule of work (i.e. how you allocated your resources, in this case your time) in your
report, and reflect on how closely you managed to work to your plan.
Note that you will NOT be assessed on whether you were able to stick to your plan, but rather on
your reflection on what caused delays or changes.
2. Explore the EWB design context, starting with the supporting information provided online by
EWB. As a team, select one project scope to focus on from those listed by EWB under Design
Area 2: ICT or 6: Waste & Reuse.
3. Define the problem and requirements for a sustainable design, by addressing each of the
design considerations listed in the 2020 EWB Challenge Design Brief [1, pp. 28-29].
Sustainability – Consider the long-term sustainability of your project proposal. What
measures could be put in place to ensure the successful continuation into the future?
Impacts on community – What impact will your design have on members of the
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 community? Who are your key stakeholders? Is there anyone you haven’t included?
Impacts on environment – What impact, both positive and negative, will your
design have on the local environment? What measures can you put in place to
mitigate any negative impacts?
Cultural and social factors – Does your design align with or celebrate the cultural
and social practices of people who live and work on Country?
Community engagement – How would you propose that EWB and CfAT engage
and consult the community throughout the project? Think about the initial design
right through to implementation. What avenues are there for community members to
become involved? What form(s) of community engagement might be required for
your particular design response?
Cost and economic benefits – What is the estimated cost of the project? Think about
the ‘Capital Expenditure’ (initial cost to start) and Operational Expenditure (ongoing
costs over time), which might include material costs, implementation,
operation/program delivery costs, and maintenance costs. Consider if there are any
potential economic benefits to the community which could result from the project.
Effective technical design – Is the technical design the most appropriate and
effective for this context? Take the time to show what alternatives were considered
and why you are proposing your design as the most appropriate. Previous EWB
Challenges show that the most successful designs are often ones that are simple in
design and can be implemented / prototyped (tested) rapidly.
Materials – Have you considered the use of locally available materials that are
culturally acceptable and environmentally friendly wherever possible. Transportation
of project materials and availability of materials which might be required for future
maintenance are a significant consideration for projects in remote locations. Where
might your proposed materials be sourced from?
Delivery and ongoing management – Who might construct and/or implement the
project? Is the design response one that considers local capacity for ongoing
management, repair, and maintenance? As much as possible, does your design or
system proposal align with locally available expertise?
Additionally consider safety and ethical issues related to your design proposal.
4. Explore potential options or “designs” for your chosen project.
5. Compare the design options and select the best based on your identified requirements.
6. Prototype taking the perspectives of imagined specific stakeholders (with guidance in the
workshop)
7. Review the design (with guidance in the workshop).
8. Prepare and give a short team presentation on your team process, developed options,
recommended option, and significant sustainability features.
9. Submit a team design report as described below.

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2.4 Learning outcomes
After completing this project, you will have:
1. a broader understanding of how the socio-political, environmental and economic context
impacts on engineering design and practice,
2. further experience of the engineering design process, including research, problem definition,
stakeholder investigation, requirements analysis, option exploring, decision-making, resource
allocation and reporting,
3. further developed your teamwork skills, and
4. further developed your communication skills (verbal, visual and written).

2.5 Required outputs

A Team Design Report, in the format as defined in Section 2.6 below.
Reporting deadline: Monday 17 May 2021, 9am
Method of submission: LMS submission portal
Report weighting: 80% of project mark (Rubric see Table 1)

A Team Design Presentation

Presentation deadline: In workshops running the week starting Monday 17 May 2021
Presentation weighting: 20% of project mark (Rubric see Table 2)

2.6 Format of written report

Word count expectation: 5000-8000 words, including everything (even references, appendices,
tables, etc). Maximum word count is 8000, penalties apply for exceeding the word limit. Files
must be submitted in Word.
Your written report shall be of a professional standard, with appropriate in-text citation and
referencing of your sources of information, using the generic report template and style guide on
the learning management style.
Your report will have the following sections:
1. Executive summary, that provides a very brief introduction to the problem, your aims,
your team and project processes, and your recommended options. The Executive
Summary should be no longer than ½ a page.
2. Introduction to Cape York Peninsula, setting the socio-political, environmental and
economic contexts
3. Overview of the challenges of infrastructure development in Cape York Peninsula
4. Overview of your project scope and aims
5. Detailed description of stakeholders and design requirements
6. Overview of your method
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 7. Project management
a) Project plan as a Gantt chart (budgeted versus actual)
b) Reflection on your resource allocation and schedule, and the cause of delays or
changes during the project.
8. Overview of all options/designs explored, and the decision-making process you used to
arrive at your recommended option/design
9. Detailed explanation of the sustainable features of your recommended design, including
a. Impacts on the community
b. Impacts on environment
c. Cultural and social factors
d. Community engagement
e. Safety
f. Ethics
g. Cost and economic benefits
10. Explanation of your design considerations related to
h. Remote diagnostics
i. Materials
j. Construction / Implementation
k. Aesthetics and amenity
11. References

2.7 FORMAT OF ORAL PRESENTATIONS

Each team will speak for 10 minutes with 5 minutes for questions and answers. Your audience
will be your class mates and ENSC1003 teaching team members. Your presentation should be
suitable for an audience including engineers from Engineers Without Borders, staff from the
Centre for Appropriate Technology, and people who live and/or work on the Cape York
Peninsula.
All team members should speak and answer questions. All class members should be present for
all of the presentations for the class, and ask questions.
Presentations will be in the usual format for your workshop (face-to-face or Zoom).
Be sure to review the oral presentation rubric when planning and rehearsing your presentation as
a team.
You should present your design context, requirements with priorities, design options that you
considered, the reasons your preferred design was selected, the preferred design and how it is
sustainable.
Following are suggested slides (guide only):
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 1. Problem, context, background, stakeholders: 4 slides
2. Requirements: 1 slide
3. Design options identified: 1 slide
4. Evaluation and design recommendation: 1 slide
5. Sustainability of preferred design: 1 slide
6. Conclusion and team learning; 1 slide
7. References; 1 slide

References
[1] Engineers Without Borders Australia, "2021 EWB Challenge Design Brief," Engineers
Without Borders Australia, Centre for Appropriate Technology Cape York 2021.

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Table 1: Written Report Assessment Rubric (for mark out of 100).
Criterion (weight) <50 50-59 60-79 80-100
1. Written Poor communication. Provides a simple summary of Good accessing of resources, strong Communicates accurately by
communication skills Report is not well information, rarely provides a evidence of research on topic, but critically accessing technical
(15%) structured, and many errors critical analysis. Few resources little critical analysis of those reports and online resources.
in grammar and spelling. used outside those provided on resources. Writing style is Writing style is concise, cohesive,
No analysis of content. LMS. Poor writing style and inconsistent throughout and /or and well structured. Appropriate
Most information sources /or poorly laid out. poorly laid out. Some information citation of information sources.
are inappropriately cited, or sources are missing.
Information sources are
are missing.
inappropriately cited, or they
are missing.
2. Context setting Minimal explanation of Only a little explanation of Demonstrates good research on the Provides detailed explanation of
(15%) socio-political, socio-political, environmental socio-political, environmental and how socio-political,
environmental and and economic context and economic context, but less environmental and economic
economic context and minimal explanation of how explanation of how these context influenced the design.
minimal explanation of these influenced the design. influenced the design.
how these influenced the
design.
3. Valuing stakeholder Little or no evidence of Identification of stakeholders Evidence of exploration of Evidence of deep exploration of
perspectives (15%) awareness of stakeholders. with little or no evidence of stakeholder perspectives in parts of stakeholder perspectives
their perspectives. the report. throughout the report.
4. Project scheduling Neither a schedule, nor a A resource schedule, but no or A simple resource schedule and Detailed resource schedule and
and reflection (5%) reflection on what was little reflection on the team’s moderate reflection on the team’s thoughtful reflection on the
learned about project project management skills. project management skills. team’s project management skills.
management in this
assignment.
5. Demonstrating Demonstrates little or no Demonstrates minimal Demonstrates moderate engineering Demonstrates good engineering
engineering project understanding of engineering project processes. project processes, from research, project processes, from research,
processes (15%) engineering project Little information on decision- stakeholder identification, stakeholder identification,
processes. No information making, nor evaluation against requirements analysis, option requirements analysis, option
on, decision-making nor criteria. exploration, scheduling, decision- exploration, scheduling, decision-
evaluation of options. making and evaluation of the making and evaluation of the
design against requirements. design against requirements.
6. Sustainability of Design demonstrates little Design has some sustainable Design is mostly sustainable. Sustainability has been
design (15%) or no sustainability. features and some weaknesses. thoughtfully included in the
design.

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Criterion (weight) <50 50-59 60-79 80-100
7. Design ethics (10%) Design demonstrates little Some ethical issues identified Most ethical issues identified and Ethical issues have been identified
or no thought for ethics. and addressed. addressed. and thoroughly addressed.
8. Design safety (10%) Design demonstrates little Safety issues identified and Safety well-considered in the Safety thoroughly considered in
or no thought for safety. addressed. design. the design.

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Table 2: Oral Presentation Assessment Rubric (for mark out of 100).
Criterion (weight) <50 50-59 60-79 80-100
Oral and visual Communicated poorly, Poor coherence across Inconsistent used oral and visual Effectively and appropriately used
communication skills ineffectively or presentation, with patchy use aids. oral and visual aids.
(30%) inappropriately. of oral and visual aids.
Context setting (35%) Minimal explanation of Little explanation of socio- Gave some explanation of how Communicated clearly how socio-
socio- political, political, environmental and socio-political, environmental and political, environmental and
environmental and economic context and little economic context influenced economic context influenced
economic context and explanation of how these requirements. requirements.
minimal explanation of influenced requirements.
how these influenced
requirements.
Sustainable design Vague or inappropriate Design presented with some Design presented with some Design presented with significant
explanation (35%) design presented without sustainable features. significant sustainable features and sustainability features explained
justification. some explanation. well.

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