Engineering education, research and design: breaking in and out of liminal space

1 Liminality is presented as a concept familiar to engineering educators, researchers and 2 designers, as a state of challenge and discomfort that we must flux in and out of in order 3 to advance our respective aims. Common areas for discussion in familiarising engineering 4 learners with liminality are sought. Threshold concepts, divergent-convergent thinking, and 5 the concept of design, research and education as iterative processes associated with breaking 6 in and out of liminal space are explored. The duality of learning is discussed through the 7 acquisition and participation metaphors. The use of design courses in leading learners in 8 to and out of liminal space, and in particular the Group Design Projects on the Imperial 9 Civil Engineering MEng degree are discussed. In closing the informed creative, as opposed 10 to routine design process, viewed from an engineering and a psychology perspective is briefly This study examines education, research and design within the context of the author’s experiences as a lecturer and researcher in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Imperial College London. In particular drawing on experiences of supervising 39 PhD students, individual MSc and final year MEng project students, delivering first and 40 second year Structural Mechanics, and in coordinating the Group Design Projects in the 41 third year of the four year Civil Engineering MEng degree. 42