Third Year Field Course (Group Project) - 2024 entry

 

This module aims to provide you with simulated industrial experience by acting as a team of renewable energy consultants. You will be embedded to a problem environment and will address a brief provided by a real client.  Working in teams, you will have to devise credible solutions to whatever energy management/energy supply/energy regulatory problems being posed and, in doing so, you will broaden your understanding of the operations and management of industrial/commercial or public sector organisations. The module aims to develop a greater degree of industrial awareness than would be gained from a purely theoretical lecture programme and also to allow you to exercise your renewable energy knowledge base such that it can be subsequently deployed autonomously and confidently upon graduation.

 

This module aims to provide you with simulated industrial experience by acting as a team of renewable energy consultants. You will be embedded to a problem environment and will address a brief provided by a real client.  Working in teams, you will have to devise credible solutions to whatever energy management/energy supply/energy regulatory problems being posed and, in doing so, you will broaden your understanding of the operations and management of industrial/commercial or public sector organisations. The module aims to develop a greater degree of industrial awareness than would be gained from a purely theoretical lecture programme and also to allow you to exercise your renewable energy knowledge base such that it can be subsequently deployed autonomously and confidently upon graduation.

This module will deliver and summatively assess the Engineering Council’s Accreditation of Higher Education Programme (AHEP-4) Learning Outcomes that are indicated in brackets in the ILO section below.

 

On successful completion of this module,  you should be able to:

 

Module Specific Skills and  Knowledge:

 

1 show increased awareness of, and ability to apply, the relevant environmental and regulatory frameworks, planning requirements, and associated codes of practice (M15);

2 demonstrate an understanding of the need to act responsibly, professionally and ethically in the world of work (M8);

 

Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge:

 

3 show detailed and coherent understanding of design processes that can be applied in unfamiliar situations, such that this can be applied in critical appraisal of uncertainties, ambiguities and the limits of knowledge in a design brief (M5);

 

Personal and Key Transferable/ Employment Skills and Knowledge:

 

4 conduct and present / report calculations, to a deadline, with awareness of professional codes of conduct and standards, and incorporate an ethical dimension and/or exercise personal judgement into/on your work (M8);

5 relay technical information effectively using the spoken word, supported by professional quality visual aids, and be able to defend your reasoning and conclusions against probing questioning (M17);

6 show effective interaction in a group situation, demonstrating principles of EDI, and work as part of a team including, possibly, as the leader (M11, M16).

 

The field course will involve a 7-10 day period away from the University campus engaging in client interaction, fact finding, analysis and design activity, resource and opportunity assessment surveys etc., under the supervision and guidance of academic and support staff in a ratio of approximately 1 academic: 10 candidates. 

The course will provide the opportunity to:

- Plan and manage a project

- Meet and work with external client/stakeholders

- Apply key resource assessment/energy management/engineering design/data analysis skills developed throughout the programme and covering a range of renewable energy technologies

- Prepare and deliver a professional presentation to an external audience

- Produce a professional consultancy-style report for the client

- Enhance project management skills