The Bachelor of Engineering offered by the Gippsland school is a four-year fully professional course and offers various specialisations. Students may choose:
The bachelor degrees have a common first year, thus students do not have to select their specialty until after some study experience.
In each specialisation there are opportunities at final-year level to take
electives suited to student interests. All of the engineering degree courses
may be studied either full-time or part-time, or by off-campus mode with
attendance at residential schools. Off-campus students will be notified of
residential school sessions either directly or when they receive their study
materials.
Also, the Bachelor of Engineering in mining engineering may be completed by
beginning two years of full-time study at Monash University Gippsland campus
and completing the course at the University of Ballarat.
An outline of the course structure and content of the Bachelor of Engineering
is set out in the course lists following this section. Students should note
that not all units are available each year, and students should refer to
updated information on the web at http://www.meg.eng.monash.edu.au/ subjects2002.
The introduction of interdisciplinary engineering is in line with the industry needs identified by the recent national review of engineering education conducted by the Institution of Engineers, Australia. The review called for a broadening of undergraduate courses, reduced specialisation and courses which prepared students to work across specialist boundaries. The interdisciplinary program is therefore structured to make it more attractive to women, to develop good interpersonal, financial and management skills within graduates, and to provide engineers with an understanding of the issue associated with sustainable development.
Graduates with therefore be well placed to practise their civil, electrical or mechanical specialisation within a multidisciplinary team environment.
Commencing with the broadly based common engineering first level, the interdisciplinary engineering branch allows students in the later years to pursue discipline majors within an interdisciplinary framework. There is a maximum of commonality at the second level so that a choice of discipline major does not have to be made until towards the end of this level. This makes for a more informed choice which can include a double major which maximises the interdisciplinary opportunities the stream has to offer. Levels three and four allow development of the chosen discipline emphasis, but always within the context of the interdisciplinary degree.
The structure of the Gippsland School of Engineering, containing as it does a number of the major engineering disciplines, makes it ideal for providing an integrated teaching approach across disciplines. A recent national review of engineering education, carried out by the engineering profession, concluded that there was a need for diversity in the type of engineering graduate leaving universities. Given the specialised nature of many courses, this diversity could be provided by courses that give students an ability to work across specialist boundaries.
The development of a mechatronics engineering branch of the Bachelor of Engineering degree will complement the introduction of an interdisciplinary engineering branch based around major studies in the traditional engineering disciplines. As with the interdisciplinary engineering branch, mechatronics engineering by its very nature requires an integrated, multidisciplinary approach. It is built on a basis of mechanical, electronics and electrical engineering, binding each of these disciplines not only with each other but also with computer science and software engineering. Mechatronics engineering brings together the fundamentals, procedures and techniques for the design, production and service of future-oriented machines and devices. Industries which design and produce modern products that are both up to date and economically produced, and which wish to keep abreast of modern technology, will create a ready demand for mechatronics engineering graduates.
The course structure has been developed to maximise commonality between units developed for the interdisciplinary engineering branch and those developed specifically for the mechatronics engineering branch. The common units were developed to optimise their appropriateness for each branch without compromising the integrity of the individual branches. The common first year, which provides a broad introduction to engineering, supports the remainder of the mechatronics engineering branch. This is not only because of the multidisciplinary nature of the mechatronics engineering program itself, but because the machines and devices to be developed will necessarily be used in a wide and diverse range of industrial disciplines.
The structure and content in terms of the various disciplines and activities addressed by the branch can be identified as: mechanics, electronics, computing, mechatronics, management, industrial experience, mathematical tools, projects and broad discipline units.
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