Design-Centric Curriculum
Faculty of Engineering
Design-Centric Curriculum
An experiential learning pathway
Build a smart city, invent a future car or design innovative devices for treating diseases … Sounds exciting?
Starting in academic year 2009/10, the NUS Faculty of Engineering will offer a new Design-Centric Curriculum (DCC) that crosses disciplines, fosters creativity and develops strong design skills to prepare NUS Engineering graduates for the globalised economy in the 21st century.
DCC is an innovative, flexible learning pathway to educate the engineers of tomorrow, so that they are well-equipped to lead in solving complex and multi-disciplinary problems associated with major challenges, such as climate change, natural disasters and ageing-related healthcare.
The curriculum will provide students extensive exposure to real-life design projects and design-focused modules throughout their course of study. Design projects will be centred on large, multi-disciplinary themes that address contemporary and emerging problems. Fundamental principles relevant to a student’s primary engineering discipline will be taught and reinforced through design-focused projects and modules, enabling students to constantly relate theory with practice, from component to systems level. The focus on practical design that incorporates commercialisation and cost issues also serves to inspire a spirit of entrepreneurship in students.
As a launch pad for this new
curriculum, an Engineering Design and Innovation Centre (EDIC) will be
established by the Faculty of Engineering. This will provide an environment that
promotes interaction and exchange of ideas among staff and students of different
disciplines to address design projects that require a wide spectrum of
expertise.
First-year students can enrol for DCC from the second semester of the Academic
Year 2009/2010. For a start, design-centric projects will centre around three
broad themes:
* Future Transportation Systems
* Engineering in Medicine
* Smart Sustainable Cities
"The Design-Centric Curriculum (DCC) offers guided experiential learning (learning by doing) for students from the early stage of their study so that they can relate what they learn in class to practical applications. Students who go through such experiential learning, as evident by those involved in the FSAE and eco-car projects, have deeper appreciation and better understanding of their courses, and are highly motivated to learn beyond subjects taught in class. In DCC, students can choose projects from one of three broad themes: Future Transportation Systems, Engineering in Medicine, Smart Sustainable Cities."
“In addition to the
tremendous opportunities for self-learning, such a design cum problem-based
learning
approach will encourage creativity and thinking out of the box. The significant
exposure to systems thinking and engineering technology management made
available in this new learning environment will more fully equip graduates to
handle large-scale complex technical problems of the future …”
