SEN710 Engineering Project Initiation

Graded Task 5.2; 7.2; 9.2 and 11.2: Individual reflection

Overview
Graded tasks in SEN710 are designed to encourage and reward you for demonstrating better achievement of course and unit
learning outcomes. Your job is to provide evidence of the impact of your work within the project by reflecting on your
participation and contribution to your project team.

Submission details
At the end of each iteration, submit the following file to OnTrack.p
 A PDF document of your reflective report (no more than 750 words) with evidence of achievement of your target grade.

Instructions
All learning activities in this unit are designed to provide you with the opportunity to engage with real-world processes for
planning and initiating an engineering project.
As a team, you should use the opportunity to explore new knowledge, skills and techniques to ideate, design and initiate an
engineering project. Individually, you will need to identify engineering professional practice skills that you need to develop
and upskill to do the project well. The primary focus of this unit is on your engineering professional practice skills and how
you apply that to ideate, design and initiate an engineering project.
The learning outcomes you must demonstrate to successfully complete this unit are:
 ULO1 - Gather information to define and contextualise a problem and propose evidence-based engineering solution(s)
 ULO2 - Work as a team to prepare preliminary designs, identify constituents for specialist individual work,
and demonstrate concern for safety and ethical practice.
 ULO3 - Subject emerging ideas and solution(s) to careful scrutiny, demonstrate project feasibility, and improve
the project plan to develop high-quality solutions that meet the requirements and expectations of project
stakeholders.
 ULO4 - Evaluate, select and defend engineering design and methodology for effective implementation.
To achieve a pass, credit, distinction or high distinction grade in SEN710, you will need to participate in all iteration retrospectives
and reflect at the end of each iteration (reflective report due in weeks 5, 7, 9 and 11). The final retrospective in week 12 is also
your formal oral defence.
In your reflective report provide evidence of impact of your work in initiating an engineering project. Present evidence of
Engineering Professional Practice skills encapsulated within the six key pillars below, which underpin your employability skill
development.
 Self-Management,
 Effective communication,
 Team membership and leadership,
 Engineering knowledge, skills and techniques,
 Project management, and
 Social responsibility.
Together these pillars represent the characteristics of a well-rounded professional engineer. Meeting minimum standard allows
you to pass this unit. The credit, distinction and high distinction standards are designed to encourage and reward you for
demonstrating better achievement of the unit learning outcomes as well as Engineering Professional Practice skills. If you are
aiming for a higher grade, present evidence of your capacity to:
 advance the team’s work through proactive participation and collaboration (credit) or
 provide leadership for project design and initiation (distinction and high distinction).

How to reflect?
Reflection requires serious thought or consideration. We recommend that you respond to following three key reflection questions
structured according to Borton’s (1970) model to construct your reflective report:

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  What happened? – Begin by thinking about a challenging or an exciting experience that occurred – this will provide
you the context for the ‘what happened’ question.
 So, what does this mean (to me, for others)? – Analyse the situation and unpack what it means to your learning and
that of others in your project team – use evidence to support your findings.
 Now what do I need to do? – Summarise your plan for continual learning to enhance your employability. Finally,
take time to reflect on other experiences.

To complete this task successfully

Analyse and critique your learning during the process of unpacking and defining the problem. Reflect on the experience using the
unit assessment rubric Table 1: Assessment criteria and standards and tell us why you deserve your target grade.

How to use the rubric

We recommend that you extend Table 1: Assessment criteria and standards below to collect evidence through reflection for
the holistic criteria and each of the specific assessment criteria for your target grade.
Keep the “Criteria” column in the table and one “Standards” column that indicates your target grade. You can delete the rest
of the columns. Insert an empty column on the right-hand side of the standards column and systematically present evidence
within this column for each criteria using the reflection questions in Borton’s reflection model presented in the instructions
above.
Ensure that you justify your achievements against the standards required for your target grade.
You will not be able to address each assessment criteria in the end of every iteration. Therefore, plan ahead and address each
criterion progressively, and by Week 11 ensure that you have addressed all of the assessment criteria.
Students who provide evidence at a holistic level alone or only provide partial evidence (meaning not evidencing the
specific criteria as required for the target grade) by the end of the unit, will be assessed against the requirements for a
pass grade.
Credit grade
To achieve a credit grade, through your reflection, you need to provide evidence that you have taken responsibility to
advance the project. Your evidence must include application of excellent engineering knowledge and skills and engineering
professional practice skills and skills during each iteration of the project. You will defend your contributions to the project
team and your performance during the oral defence. Please refer to the rubric provided at the credit level.
Distinction grade
To achieve a Distinction, you need to provide evidence and demonstrate that you have achieved distinction level in self-
management and two other areas out the five areas of engineering professional practice skills listed above. In all other areas you
should at least demonstrate evidence of achievement at credit level. You must also present evidence that your technical
engineering work has guided the direction of the project design and initiation activities. Please refer to the rubric provided at the
distinction / high distinction level.
High Distinction grade
To achieve a high distinction, you need to provide evidence and demonstrate that you have achieved the highest level in all
areas of engineering professional practice. Please refer to the rubric provided at the distinction / high distinction level.

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Table 1: Assessment criteria and standards
Criteria Guides project direction (D)/Leads the project (HD)

Holistic criteria Specific criteria Distinction and High Distinction Grade

Self- Commitment I have devoted 20 to 25 hours at least for completing each task for this unit. Particularly, for 9.1 task, me and other group
management members used to meet in person to discuss about the project, as we have got some correction in previous task and all of
us wanted to make both tasks more than good.

Accountability I have taken care of multiple tasks which are co-related with other tasks and completed within the timeframe so that my other
team members can start working on their assigned tasks. If any changes or corrections are there, then I also made sure that I
rectify it and submit the task again as per the requirement.

Effective Active listening While discussing the tasks sheet before started working on it, I listened to and considered every possible point of view of
communication my team members.
Verbal, non-verbal As a member of a team, I have sent emails to our sponsor and team members, kept notes of our research, areas for
and written background research, topics to be discussed in a team meeting.

Team Participation I have tried to complete the work allocated to me, and attended every meeting and discussion organized in our team and
membership and with the sponsor to keep track of the project and understand the future tasks that have to be done for the progress of
leadership the project.

Engineering Critical thinking I have researched heat transfer mechanisms and understand the thermodynamics related to heat gun. The background
knowledge and research on the mentioned topics made me understand the importance of conduction, convection and radiation.
skills

Problem Solving I have tried to provide the calculation related to heat transfer and thermal conduction, convection and radiation for
different elements and material needed for the project.

Decision-making With my team members, after conducting extensive background research on the material that can be chosen for the final
product, I took the initiative to find the suitable heating element for the miniaturized heat gun.

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 Project Tools and I have used Microsoft teams to keep in touch with other team members, and also used Trello board to know the tasks
management processes that other team members are doing. The work breakdown structure was created for the previous task also has been
used to know the future work.

Situation To complete task 9.1, we have organized multiple meetings online and on campus. The task in this assessment was to provide project design and
sketches, calculation related to heat transfer and thermal conduction, convection, radiation and heat losses.
Task It was my responsibility to obtain the heat conduction, convective heat losses, and radiation in the heating element and casing of the heat gun. To make
sure the heat gun operated within safe temperature ranges, I also had to calculate and analyze the heat transfer characteristics.
Action I performed background research on heat transfer analysis, and understood the conduction, convection and radiation thoroughly. The background
research helped me to understand and identify the critical factors that influence the heat transfer in standard heat guns. The miniaturized heat gun will
also work on the same principle as the conventional heat gun. I calculated the heat conduction through the heating element and housing using standard
heat transfer equations and concepts. To evaluate the effect of different heating elements on the heat transmission, I conducted in-depth thermal
analyses.
Result According to the calculation, the heat gun's assumed size and the data utilized for each heating element helped reach the desired temperature by
minimizing convective heat losses and radiation losses to the environment. The heat losses can be decreased, and the heat gun's total energy efficiency
can be increased by applying the proper insulation and reflecting materials. The heat gun functioned within safe temperature ranges thanks to the
estimated thermal analysis.

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Appendix

Meeting purpose:
Allocation and distribution of tasks.
2.30 to 2.45 pm – Discussed about the previous tasks completed.
3.00 – started working on the feedback received by sponsor individualy.
3.30 – Shared views on project design and engineering methodology.
5.00- Discussion about the progress made on assigned tasks and doubt solving.

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Meeting purpose:

8.30 am - Dscussion about the progress made on the assigned tasks.

9.00 am – Discussion about heat transfer and thermal conduction, convection, radiation.
11.00 am- Discussion about possible changes and modification on heat gun.
12.00 pm - break
12.30 pm- Performed market research on the available heat guns in the market, specification, parts, types.
1.15 pm – Discssion about about performing reverse engineering.
2.00 pm – meeting ended.

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Meeting purpose:

1.20 pm - Discussion on progress we made on previous allocated tasks and discussion about the conduction and convection calculation.
1.45 pm – Discussion about the objects and equipments we might need for prototype.
2.10 pm – Discussion about safety, precausions and protocols we need to follow.
2.25 pm – meeting ended.

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Purpose of meeting (With sponsor)

2.30 pm – Asking for the feedback on the work submitted. Need to add some more content about heating element.
2.45 pm – Discussion about calculation of heat transfer and thermal conduction, convection, radiation, heat losses.
3.10 pm – Researching about some papers on heat transfer.
3.30 pm – meeting ended.

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4.00 pm – Doing research and finding more data on heat transfer.
5.40 pm – Performed hand calculation with teammate.
6.30 pm – Filling up task sheet 9.1 and presentation.

I have attended every single meeting organized online for the discussion and progress of the task. I have also made bookings in the library to perform the tasks together if
required.

Hand notes, task allocation, calculation:

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I try to keep notes for myself to be on track and to perform the background research on. While discussing in a meeting, if I have some doubts, I note them down on paper
to find a solution to that later. Keep the notes while receiving the feedback from sponsor.

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