The Pearl Sullivan Engineering Ideas Clinic has had many years of program growth and adoption; as of winter 2024, more than 43,000 students have participated in an Ideas Clinic activity. Our design activities have provided real-world design activities for thousands of students across Engineering. Other initiatives, like our teamwork training modules, have similarly been a huge success, with almost 15,000 students benefitting from them since the program began in 2016.
As we seek to expand the number and diversity of immersive, engineering design activities in the middle academic years, the IDEAs Clinic has created an open call for new activity proposals, and have offered a total of $45,000 in funding for eligible projects.
| Proposal Title | Brief Summary of Activity |
|---|---|
|
Sustainability Stakeholder Café for Capstone |
The Stakeholder Café concept was pioneered in the fall of 2023 with Biomedical Engineering students. Many students were able to gain excellent information from this consultative process that influenced their designs during capstone. The Stakeholder Café connects capstone students with stakeholders from various domains that relate to sustainability. We will recruit stakeholders who have experience of or will be impacted by social, environmental, and economic pillars of sustainability to meet with students, and help shape the project needs and requirements. |
|
Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges for Interdisciplinary Engineering Capstone Teams |
This project is to develop a working "playbook" for 3rd/4th Yr engineering student design teams to research specific problem spaces and through design thinking approaches, they will ideate solution sets (products or services) for a Grand Challenge from the Engineering Deans Canada list of Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges. A “playbook” originates from the business field that compiles a company’s processes, practices and policies. The working playbook we propose will be a resource document that will be a thorough guide for student teams and faculty as they navigate design problems relating to the Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges. |
|
Sustainability Tools Development |
Recently, multiple tools were offered to students in Systems Design Engineering to use as a support to think about and consider the 3 pillars of sustainability earlier in their design cycle. This project aims to streamline and connect these tools to assist undergraduate students think about sustainability in their design projects. |
| Proposal Title | Brief Summary of Activity |
|---|---|
|
Brief Summary of Activity Motion and time study and process optimization |
Students will conduct motion and time studies of a conveyor system in MSCI 131 (Design and Facilities Planning), while fourth year students in MSCI 433 (Applications of Management Engineering) will use the skills they've learned in their program to optimize performance indicators of an accumulation/sorting process. |
|
Integrating Authentic Design into Hands-on Laboratory through Project-Based Laboratory Learning |
This proposal aims to develop real-world, student-centered project-based laboratories (PBL). Students will take part in project-based laboratory learning modules that focus on three high-impact ChE process technologies: lithium-ion battery, vanadium redox flow battery, and hydrogen-based proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). |
| Bridging the Gap | To expand on the theoretical knowledge our students gain in the classroom and help them develop a deep understanding of the behavior of full-scale structures, this proposal will leverage existing data from the pedestrian bridge component of the Living Lab system in Engineering 7 to develop an integrated evaluation of the structure, using several of the analytical lenses taught to our students throughout the Architectural Engineering (AE) and Civil Engineering (CIVE) curriculums. |
|
Transforming the Clinical Paradigm for Assessment of Sensorimotor Skills and Cognitive Abilities in Children |
This application proposed an interdisciplinary design workshop activity focused on the real-world challenge of assessing childhood development of sensorimotor and cognitive function. The workshop will assemble small, interdisciplinary teams of undergraduate and graduate students from the faculties of Health and Engineering to collaborate. |
| Proposal 1 | Proposal 2 | Proposal 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Model-based design toolchain for rapid control prototyping with emphasis on automotive systems. | Miniature House facade design | Modular Ultrasound-based Aeroponics Lab |
| Proposal 1 | Proposal 2 | Proposal 3 | Proposal 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sensors using capacitance. Details on the pilot offering can be seen here). |
Video game-based control systems labs | Metal casting lab | Entrepreneurial Mindset - Technology assets and IP literacy introduction |