A study into the impact of introducing Year 5 students to university and electronic engineering

This paper demonstrates the benefits of introducing Year 5 school students to university life, encountering styles of teaching to which they would be otherwise unaccustomed; and the results of a survey conducted both before and after the study visit to determine whether the visit was beneficial to the students in academic terms.

A vector approach to the assessment of undergraduate engineering courses

In any undergraduate engineering programme there is a need to assess the balance and flavour of the various educational strands. In order for a quality assurance of these programmes to be met there is a need to evaluate the course load, academic content and the assessment marks of each course in the undergraduate programme. The existing ranges of QA methods for these programmes are focused on one or two of these issues and do not provide a comprehensive assessment procedure. Following a review of the existing QA methods, this paper will define a three-dimensional approach to the assessment of the educational aspects of an undergraduate course. Various features of this method will be described and potential benefits explained.

Digital infrastructure and changing practices in engineering design

New skills are needed to compete, as integrated software solutions provide a digital infrastructure for projects. This changes the practice of information management and engineering design on next generation projects.

Architectural Fictions

Architectural Fictions was a curatorial project that brought together the work of eight artist that in different ways addressed principles of fictioning and narrative in relation to the built environment. The project brought critical focus to the narrative structures implicit in the production of space. Through dialogue with the participants, the project developed speculative critical exchange, examining questions such as the interplay between the real and the virtual and the role of design in relation to processes of habitation. Architectural Fictions formed a keynote exhibition in South Hill Park Arts Centre program. SHP is funded by the Arts Council England and is in partnership with ARC which delivers events by professionals from the field of art and culture. A public lecture about Architectural Fictions was delivered by Mary Maclean and Tim Renshaw who together make up the group Outside Architecture. Outside Architecture aims to open up speculative dialogues and images on the materials and signs that compose the texture of shared and lived in spaces.