Queen's Engineering Community Outreach
All first year engineering students at Queen's University enroll in a 12-week team design project as part of APSC100. This course provides the fundamental design, professional and laboratory skills required for the engineering profession. Module 1 - Practical Engineering Modules - presents students with the opportunity to develop information literacy, leadership, teamwork, communication and project management skills through an open-ended engineering design project.
For the past five years, we have worked with local community groups to offer real-world design projects. Guidance from an upper year engineering student (Project Manager) and a Faculty Sponsor is provided, while students, working in teams of 4, are encouraged to find their own engineering design solutions. Community projects encourage students to understand the use of engineering design in their society. Students have shown interest in local projects as they are able to see the problem and speak with those involved to better understand the various aspects of the problem.
We encourage community groups to collaborate with us in helping train future engineers. Community partners benefit from the time and ability of bright, young, engineers-in training. In turn, students benefit from the opportunity to develop their problem-solving, communication and design skills, while allowing them to help our community.
Projects from this Year
The following links feature some of this years community projects.
Waste Management
Design of a Solar Panel
Past Projects
The following links feature a selection of past community projects including project details, pictures and comments.
Design of a Swim Bench for the Penguins Can Fly Swim Club
Environment Retrofit for the Boys and Girls Club
Adaptaion of a Mobility Device
Adaptation of Exercise Equipment to Wheelchair Access
Grade 7 and 8 Science Outreach
Habitat for Humanity ReStore Project
Living Energy Lab Project
Reduction of Ecological Footprint Projects at Hotel Dieu Hospital
Community Client Perspectives
Here's what some community partners had to say about their experiences with an APSC100 partnership.
"I am still in awe after this afternoon's presentations!! With only a brief initial exposure to my challenge, the students really came through with some marvelous ideas for helping me. Again, I was very impressed with the students' ability to grasp the essence of my limitations and come up with some very practical solutions. Some of these were every bit as good or better than a lot of the ones I've seen developed by so-called "experts in the business"."
"Just a quick note to say how much I enjoyed meeting your student project teams last night at Queens. I had a blast and was most impressed with the intuition, interest and thoroughness with which the students delved into my particular challenge. They were all very personable and I am most grateful at having the opportunity to participate and the efforts you will all make on my behalf."
"I am very impressed by the level of hands-on participation that my students were able to experience. These labs provide a broader range of thinking that is inhibited by the lack of resources and materials at elementary school levels. If experiments like these were used in all grades, I believe that our students' understanding of the curriculum and their excitement towards learning science would be heightened. Thank you on behalf of my students for such a valuable learning experience. We had fun while learning a curriculum that is already overloaded and dense."
Student Perspectives
Here's what some students had to say on their overall experiences.
"This course gave us a chance to experience what working as an engineer is really like. It put into perspective the types of situations that we have to look forward to upon graduation."
"I enjoyed this course very much. It offered a different aspect of engineering, [and was] more hands on than other courses this year, [allowing] us to do more creative thinking. It also worked on communication, teamwork, leadership and writing skills that are valuable to the rest of our university life."
"It's a good way to get first years thinking about what real engineering tasks will be like."
"This course was an interesting and eye opening experience into what actual engineering projects have the potential to be like"
"I enjoyed the project and the application of technical skills towards a real life model."
How to become a community partner
For more information on forming a partnership with Queen's first year engineering students, please see this poster or contact:
