Engineers Without Borders Challenge Tips:
The Engineers Without Borders challenge is designed to provide students with a chance to make a real contribution in helping poverty stricken communities. This opportunity can be particularly educational due to its divergence from standard assessment. However, this same divergence causes much confusion among students if not properly managed. As such, a list of basic suggestions has been listed below, in order to simplify the task.
Construct a team charter:
Often the challenge is undertaken by teams of four to six. The first thing you should do is create a team charter, which clearly identifies each team members strengths, viable meeting times, work standards and communication methods. This should be done together as a group rather than by an individual member to ensure all members have sufficient input. An example charter is included at the bottom of the page.
Construct a Minutes and Meeting Agenda Template, and use them:
Having a minutes page allows members to keep of what has been discussed and decided upon during a meeting. It allows members to clearly understand any work they have been assigned in order to avoid confusion. It is also invaluable in proving a members lack of contribution should such a situation occur.
A meeting Agenda is important as it helps members prepare for any topics that will be discussed during the next meeting. It also allows the meeting to progress far more smoothly as everyone has an understanding of what is required to be completed during the meeting.
An example of a Minutes page and Meeting agenda can be found at the bottom of the page.
Read the Client Brief:
More often than not the project will contain two client briefs. One produced by Engineers Without Borders, and one from your institution. It is important you familiarise yourself with these early on as they provide valuable insight into possible areas you may wish to consider.
Assign work
Alright so your first meeting is out of the way, take the initiative and assign some work early on. Assessment is only going to build up as the semester increases, so make life easier on yourself and do what you can now. Below are some possible things you might want to assign.
Explore the EWB website:
Perhaps one of the biggest and most common mistakes teams make it not exploring the EWB website early on. The EWB website contains valuable information, and information sources. The further you explore the links and sub links of the website the more valuable resources you will find. This should be done by all members.
Download a template:
After exploring the EWB website you will notice they provide a detailed template. While a little difficult to work with, this provides a very strong basis for you to work with, and will help all members get a feel for the project.
Seek advice:
When doing the challenge personally I found a lot of time was wasted over complicating the task. The best way to overcome this is to speak to a student from a previous year and ask for advice, try STIMulate if you don't know anyone. If possible your tutor may be able to give you an example assignment from a previous year. It is very important you understand what is and isn't required to be in the report.
Get an example:
If your tutor was unable to provide you with an example, now is a great time to start browsing the internet to find one. You may want to consider looking at a few different examples before you find one that is similar in structure to the template, and is of a high standard.
Setup appropriate communication methods:
There are a lot of different technologies which makes communications between team members much simpler. Some great examples of this are social media networks, and cloud devices. These will allow you to communicate and share documents instantaneously without having to meet up.
Create a project timeline:
Realistically, your timeline will be fairly inaccurate. But it will help solidify what work needs to be done and in what order it must be done, besides you might was well get used to using a Gantt chart now, you will see them a lot in the engineering degree. By using the template downloaded from EWB and this document, you should be able to make a reasonable timeline. Try Microsoft Professional for making your gantt chart.
Brainstorm:
After exploring the information presented on the EWB website you may feel equipped to make a decision on your topic already. All the topics represent significant issues and as such there is no incorrect topic. Of course, if you still feel unsure as a team, it is ok to take some time to do a little extra research. After looking into solutions from various topics you may decide to design a solution that covers multiple areas.
Read information:
Alright, so you have gone through the EWB website and found about 600 pages of information relevant to your topic. At this point you should probably begin to read it. If you have already selected your topic, this will greatly reduce your amount of reading, however you should probably still skim the other areas for information. The more knowledge you have on the subject, the more informed your decisions will be throughout the rest of the project.
Generate alternative solutions:
Feeling well equipped with your immense knowledge on your area, it is time to begin generating alternative solutions. In my opinion it is best to all do this individually, then to discuss each members ideas as a whole. Generally this will result in a new idea by integrating multiple ideas or concept. Additionally, this will allow members to look at the final solution from different perspectives, allowing it to be optimised or become more effective.
Narrow you range:
Normally one or two solutions will really stand out at this point. From this point onwards, team should start referencing information correctly, this will save time and confusion later (I always include the hyperlink where viable). In order to ensure you have robust references, pay attention the database you utilise to search for information. Research your two solutions, and use criteria to decide which one will be better for your project.
Optimise the design:
Alright you are down to one idea. At this point you should be discussing with the team how you could optimise your design, and looking at its individual components in more detail.
It is normally a good idea to show in your final report that you considered a variety of different components in your design and effectively evaluated them against each other in order to select the optimal component.
Check criteria:
Evaluate your idea in terms of sustainability. Make sure it meets all the requirements and fits within all the constraints.
Select a Liaison:
At this point it is a good idea to have someone start compiling all your work into the template. Depending on the team structure and size, it may be efficient to have multiple people working on this.
Design Brief:
Members who aren't working on compiling the information should start working on analysing the individual components of the design. This should include professional looking diagrams and detailed descriptions of each aspect of your design. You may choose to include these diagrams in your appendix or beside the text, depending on the layout of the document.
Provided you have followed the above tips/guide you should be feeling pretty capable of completed the remainder of the project alone. For advice on presenting your 'tender' please follow the link below.
The Engineers Without Borders challenge is designed to provide students with a chance to make a real contribution in helping poverty stricken communities. This opportunity can be particularly educational due to its divergence from standard assessment. However, this same divergence causes much confusion among students if not properly managed. As such, a list of basic suggestions has been listed below, in order to simplify the task.
Construct a team charter:
Often the challenge is undertaken by teams of four to six. The first thing you should do is create a team charter, which clearly identifies each team members strengths, viable meeting times, work standards and communication methods. This should be done together as a group rather than by an individual member to ensure all members have sufficient input. An example charter is included at the bottom of the page.
Construct a Minutes and Meeting Agenda Template, and use them:
Having a minutes page allows members to keep of what has been discussed and decided upon during a meeting. It allows members to clearly understand any work they have been assigned in order to avoid confusion. It is also invaluable in proving a members lack of contribution should such a situation occur.
A meeting Agenda is important as it helps members prepare for any topics that will be discussed during the next meeting. It also allows the meeting to progress far more smoothly as everyone has an understanding of what is required to be completed during the meeting.
An example of a Minutes page and Meeting agenda can be found at the bottom of the page.
Read the Client Brief:
More often than not the project will contain two client briefs. One produced by Engineers Without Borders, and one from your institution. It is important you familiarise yourself with these early on as they provide valuable insight into possible areas you may wish to consider.
Assign work
Alright so your first meeting is out of the way, take the initiative and assign some work early on. Assessment is only going to build up as the semester increases, so make life easier on yourself and do what you can now. Below are some possible things you might want to assign.
Explore the EWB website:
Perhaps one of the biggest and most common mistakes teams make it not exploring the EWB website early on. The EWB website contains valuable information, and information sources. The further you explore the links and sub links of the website the more valuable resources you will find. This should be done by all members.
Download a template:
After exploring the EWB website you will notice they provide a detailed template. While a little difficult to work with, this provides a very strong basis for you to work with, and will help all members get a feel for the project.
Seek advice:
When doing the challenge personally I found a lot of time was wasted over complicating the task. The best way to overcome this is to speak to a student from a previous year and ask for advice, try STIMulate if you don't know anyone. If possible your tutor may be able to give you an example assignment from a previous year. It is very important you understand what is and isn't required to be in the report.
Get an example:
If your tutor was unable to provide you with an example, now is a great time to start browsing the internet to find one. You may want to consider looking at a few different examples before you find one that is similar in structure to the template, and is of a high standard.
Setup appropriate communication methods:
There are a lot of different technologies which makes communications between team members much simpler. Some great examples of this are social media networks, and cloud devices. These will allow you to communicate and share documents instantaneously without having to meet up.
Create a project timeline:
Realistically, your timeline will be fairly inaccurate. But it will help solidify what work needs to be done and in what order it must be done, besides you might was well get used to using a Gantt chart now, you will see them a lot in the engineering degree. By using the template downloaded from EWB and this document, you should be able to make a reasonable timeline. Try Microsoft Professional for making your gantt chart.
Brainstorm:
After exploring the information presented on the EWB website you may feel equipped to make a decision on your topic already. All the topics represent significant issues and as such there is no incorrect topic. Of course, if you still feel unsure as a team, it is ok to take some time to do a little extra research. After looking into solutions from various topics you may decide to design a solution that covers multiple areas.
Read information:
Alright, so you have gone through the EWB website and found about 600 pages of information relevant to your topic. At this point you should probably begin to read it. If you have already selected your topic, this will greatly reduce your amount of reading, however you should probably still skim the other areas for information. The more knowledge you have on the subject, the more informed your decisions will be throughout the rest of the project.
Generate alternative solutions:
Feeling well equipped with your immense knowledge on your area, it is time to begin generating alternative solutions. In my opinion it is best to all do this individually, then to discuss each members ideas as a whole. Generally this will result in a new idea by integrating multiple ideas or concept. Additionally, this will allow members to look at the final solution from different perspectives, allowing it to be optimised or become more effective.
Narrow you range:
Normally one or two solutions will really stand out at this point. From this point onwards, team should start referencing information correctly, this will save time and confusion later (I always include the hyperlink where viable). In order to ensure you have robust references, pay attention the database you utilise to search for information. Research your two solutions, and use criteria to decide which one will be better for your project.
Optimise the design:
Alright you are down to one idea. At this point you should be discussing with the team how you could optimise your design, and looking at its individual components in more detail.
It is normally a good idea to show in your final report that you considered a variety of different components in your design and effectively evaluated them against each other in order to select the optimal component.
Check criteria:
Evaluate your idea in terms of sustainability. Make sure it meets all the requirements and fits within all the constraints.
Select a Liaison:
At this point it is a good idea to have someone start compiling all your work into the template. Depending on the team structure and size, it may be efficient to have multiple people working on this.
Design Brief:
Members who aren't working on compiling the information should start working on analysing the individual components of the design. This should include professional looking diagrams and detailed descriptions of each aspect of your design. You may choose to include these diagrams in your appendix or beside the text, depending on the layout of the document.
Provided you have followed the above tips/guide you should be feeling pretty capable of completed the remainder of the project alone. For advice on presenting your 'tender' please follow the link below.
AlphaCharter.doc |
AlphaMeetingNotes.doc |