Handbook

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Enrolment in graduate coursework in a Murdoch Environmental, Chemical or Metallurgical Engineering discipline. Other Murdoch graduate students with equivalent qualifications may be enrolled with permission from the unit coordinator.

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Unit content:Learning can be fun if it is driven by curiosity and the desire / need to fill knowledge gaps or solve a relevant problem. Both approaches (expanding knowledge by filling gaps and solving a problem for example by novel technology) start with defining the problem, hypothesis, target orientated research of information, information interpretation leading to the advancement of knowledge and technology, and effective dissemination of results and conclusions to various audiences for either critical evaluation and/or knowledge transfer. This unit puts engineering students in the likely position of having to evaluate new technology for the purpose of solving an identified problem. A similar position would arise in the case of innovators producing new ideas for the drafting of a patent application on innovative technology. Both approaches to technology evaluation and innovation will be developed as separate projects in this unit. Rather than producing technology in the class, students use an inquiry based approach to establish an existing problem (or question or hypothesis) in the field of engineering, followed by researching information from a number of specified resources including patents and primary scientific literature. Information will be analysed, visualised and interpreted by a combination of group work and individual work. The use of computers for information sorting, analysing, plotting and modelling is an intrinsic part of this unit. In order to broaden the outlook in knowledge generation and to develop a critical approach to new knowledge, students gather and investigate example cases in which knowledge has resulted in contradicting and even disastrous outcomes. Differences in the approach of research for knowledge generation in fields outside of science and engineering will introduced via guest presentations from other schools.