This year’s incoming class of systems design engineering students will be navigating their first semester at the University of Waterloo alongside visitors from the far-off planet TsTs.
In the first-year course Introduction to Design (SYDE 161), students learn a user-centred design process that they will apply throughout their degree. The major assignment in the course asks students to use engineering design methods to develop a solution to a problem faced by a very specific group of users.
Rather than the usual default of human users, students this year will design for aliens visiting Earth from planet TsTs. Students will be provided with a scale model of a TsTsian, cultural artifacts and supporting information that they will need to design a solution for the aliens to navigate Engineering 5 and the University of Waterloo campus.
Go to Aliens invade first-year design course for the full story.