Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Condensed Engineering Course Inspires International Students
Students on an accelerated engineering degree took on a challenge that usually takes a full academic year to complete,
and came up with three practical solutions in six months.
The challenge laid down by Engineers Without Borders (EWB), in partnership with Habitat for Humanity Vietnam, was to
develop innovative solutions for sustainable development of the Anh Minh district within the Kien Giang province on the
Mekong Delta, at the southern tip of Vietnam. Although the Mekong Delta produces around 50 per cent of Vietnam’s rice,
it is one of the poorest regions in the country.
Senior lecturer in product development, and paper coordinator Dr Aruna Shekar says the challenge gives first-year
students an opportunity to research ideas linked to real world scenarios and to get hands-on experience in problem
solving.
“This cohort of students are the first intake of engineering students for the acclerated programme, and they’ve come
from all over the world to study engineering at Massey University. In the accelerated programme the engineering practice
courses are compressed into blocks, so the students have to work towards very tight deadlines to complete all the work
required.”
Three teams of four students each had to present their project to a panel of judges, including a representative from
EWB, and answer tough questions in English on their research, design and the final project development.
Of the three projects presented, the winning one was a fuel-efficient cooking stove that utilised locally-sourced
components, burned twigs and sticks and also had a chimney to direct smoke away from the cooking area. The other
projects were water filtration systems — one created largely using bamboo and the other from locally-sourced low-cost
materials.
The students are the first group to study under an accelerated programme which condenses the time spent on a four-year
Bachelor of Engineering with honours degree. By condensing the first year into six intense months, the students complete
their degree in three-and-a-half years.
The cohort of mainly international students arrived at the Albany campus in August last year, at the start of the
Northern Hemisphere spring. Being able to start the accelerated programme so soon after their home country’s academic
year was over proved to be a real bonus.
“In India our academic year ends in March, so I would have had to wait for a whole year to get into this course,” says
Alfred Moses from India. “We had a small class – there were only 15 of us, so we had a lot of attention from our
lecturers. We could ask them anything.”
As well as improving their English skills, the students were able to settle into New Zealand life, and are looking
forward to starting their second year of studies shortly.
Massey University engineering students have won the New Zealand EWB challenge for the last two years.
The Engineers Without Borders Challenge is run by EWB Australia, with a chapter in New Zealand. It is part of an
international organisation that works on grassroots engineering programmes for sustainable development in disadvantaged
communities around the world.