The University of Canterbury introduced a new course this year - Transport Design Project. Industry mentors assisted groups of four students during the course of the project. Jeanette Ward and Axel Wilke mentored one of the groups.
The intention of the Transport Design Project course is not to advance students' technical knowledge, but to reinforce their existing knowledge with a realistic design project that emphasises the development of professional engineering practices, many of which are difficult to teach without a specific project for context (e.g. costing, peer review, consultation, consents). The course is an option for final-year (3rd Pro) Civil Engineering degree students, with some postgraduate transport students also able to take the course.
Axel and Jeanette were impressed by the students' ability to produce during a relatively short period of time a realistic and sound proposal for a real life intersection that is due to be upgraded by NZTA.
