The pedagogy of creating a mechatronic product integrated with english communication skills for teaching design and innovation to engineering undergraduates

Abstract

The newly formed Engineering Science department at the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) has recently initiated a 2-semester, 3-hour per week course entitled, "Engineering Design and Innovation". This year the students are tasked with designing, manufacturing and programming a working Mechatronic Potato Shaping machine that is required to form a potato into an 8-sided shape, known as a "Chateau Pomme-de-Terre", which is a shape similar to that of an American football. This paper describes the outline of the course and how students are initiated into the design and innovation of a Mechatronic machine together with the integration of the English Communication Skills course as a necessary scaffold to the required engineering genres related to reading/writing and oral/aural skills for efficient and effective execution of the course.