Engineering Design Days

Student engagement and enthusiasm is key to a successful program.  It is crucial that new students feel connected to the profession early in their career; that they should have opportunities where they "Feel Like an Engineer". 

The Pearl Sullivan IDEAs Clinic hit a home run with Engineering Days, which are events characterized by multi-day immersion of teams of students working on large, hands-on, open-ended engineering design problems. Modeled on the concept of a “hackathon”, students embrace the intensity and bring their best to solving these challenging real world problems.

Students working on Tron Days, Fall 2018

Select Papers Published:

A. Hurst, C. Rennick. S. Bedi, "A 'Lattice' Approach to Design Education: Bringing Real and Integrated Design Experience to the Classroom through Engineering Design Days", in Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design, Delft, 2019.

C. Rennick, C. Hulls, A. Milne, D. Wright, E. Li, S. Bedi, "Engineering Design Days: Engaging Students with Authentic Problem-Solving in an Academic Hackathon," in ASEE Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, 2018.

S. Phillips, K. Geisinger, R. Al-Hammoud, S. Walbridge, "Enhancing Student Learning by Providing a Failure Risk-Free Environment and Experiential Learning Opportunities", in ASEE Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, 2018.

I. Ivkovic, T. L. Willett, M. J. Borland, M. Gorbet, "Design Days Boot Camp: Enhancing Student Motivation to Start Thinking in Engineering Design Terms in the First Year (website)", in Canadian Engineering Education Association Conference, Toronto, 2017. 

K. Mckay, S. Mohamed, L. Stacey, "Concepts Only Please! Innovating a First Year Engineering Course,(website)" in Canadian Engineering Education Conference, Halifax, 2016.