The General Courses Unit (GCU) provides training and instructions to engineering students through many general courses. The first course of its three such courses is IE 200 that is comprised of streams (1) Research; (2) Reading and Communication Skills. This course aims at improving reading and communication and research skills. Another course, IE 201 titled “Introduction to Engineering Design I”, provides training in self-regulation, communication, ability to work cooperatively, problem solving ability and quality improvement. Likewise, IE 202 called “Introduction to Engineering Design II” covers engineering design process, computer modeling and heuristics for problem solving.

IE 200             Technical Communication Skills

Communication skills are developed through task-based learning by involving students in writing, speaking and listening tasks in English. It also includes in-depth reading, information gathering, analyzing, criticizing, presenting, paraphrasing and summarizing.  By the end of the course each student should have completed a set of the aforementioned tasks culminating into a full-fledged AIMRAD-based research report that is communicated both in writing and orally using appropriate electronic means of communication.

Prerequisites              ELIS 104

IE 201             Introduction to Engineering Design I

Introduction to active learning: teamwork, team dynamics, team norms and communication, conducting effective meetings and quality assessment. Problem solving procedure: problem definition, generation of solutions, selection methodology, solution implementation, assessment of implementation. Levels of learning and degrees of internalization. Ethical decision. Organization of the work and design notebook. Reverse engineering and design projects.

Prerequisites              COMM 101, ELIS 104

IE 202             Introduction to Engineering Design II

Engineering design process. Hands–on real life and team–based engineering design project: Project management, Problem definition, Functions and requirements, Alternative solutions, Modeling, Analysis and optimization, Prototyping, Experimental analysis, Communicating design outcomes.

Prerequisites              IE 200, IE 201