Inter-Institutional Student Developed Team Based Project

CONTEXT Team based inter-disciplinary projects provide an integral component in the development of graduate attributes for engineering students. These attributes can be refined and advanced through the development of an inter-institutional student competition led by students. Students and people in general, are more willing to learn when we are motivated. The positive effects of motivation, combined with the necessity of team work in an engineering team based competition, is an ideal method of inspiring, motivating and advancing the professional skills of engineering students. In this work, we propose that the Australasian Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (A²UV) Competition, created by the Australian Maritime College Autonomous Technology (AMCAT) student-led society, will provide students from all tiers of tertiary education, from undergraduate to postgraduate levels, with invaluable, practical and professional skills, whereby gaining experience for their future careers. GOAL Engineering education pedagogy can be developed through the formation of inter-institutional student based competitions. The outcomes aimed to be achieved from the development of these competitions include: (1) the growth of a student’s professional skills, research practice and design processing; and, (2) the successful coordination of a major undergraduate engineering challenge. A combination of team competitions, group projects and regular project meetings aim to provide a platform that allows the effectiveness of the project to be analysed relative to the student learning and development. APPROACH The proposed approach to the development of the competition was initialized first by the creation of student-led society focused on the development of autonomous technologies. Following the establishment and development of this society, a need for an inter-institutional based competition was identified. This society has then reached out to other schools within Australia to develop this program. ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES The anticipated outcomes to be achieved from this competition based project are inter-institutional networking and collaboration, work integrated learning and the development of essential professional skills in students. A team-based, hands-on learning environment provides an interactive experience whilst engaging and motivating students to learn and teach each other in a problem based learning situation. All the while, the students are developing the necessary graduate attributes and professional skills required for future workplace applications. CONCLUSIONS The formation of the nationally interactive student based competition, the A²UV Competition, establishes an inter-institutional educational relationship. This relationship gives students the opportunity to further expand their passion for the field of underwater and autonomous technologies.