This case study has been developed as part of the Engineering Subject Centre Teaching Awards 2010 from data gathered through observations of the teaching component; interviews with the tutor and a student focus group.
The Software for Engineering Module in the second year of the Civil Engineering BEng and MEng courses at Dundee University invites students to tackle a real-world open-ended structural modelling problem in the design of complex non-standard structures. The aim is to enhance students' problem solving team work planning and IT skills including introducing them to a novel approach for the parametric generation of data sets for use in structural modelling packages using Excel spreadsheets.