This course consists of two parts:
Preparation bachelor assignment
After this course, the student is able to …
- Explain what research is, what types and phases can distinguished and how the quality of research can be assured;
- Formulate a research question based on a specific problem;
- Perform literature research and use the results to further specify the research question;
- Write a research proposal based on the research question that was formulated;
- Reflect on the technological and societal impact of the research;
- Reflect on ethical issues relevant to the research;
- Critically reflect on the research proposals of fellow students.
Societal embedding
After this course, the student is able to …
- Define goals and methods of different forms of Technology Assessment;
- Analyze the socio-technical development dynamics of a new technology;
- Identify relevant actor groups around a new technology and display their underlying relations and power balances on a social map;
- Research and analyze actor positions with respect to a new technology, and based on this analysis determine expectations of possible future bottlenecks;
- Map responsibilities of researchers/designers;
- Describe and apply basic ethical concepts and positions;
- Articulate hypotheses and attitudes with respect to moral issues, analyze assumptions and views of parties involved, build an argument for your own position.
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This is a part of module 11, ME 11 Production Systems Engineering of the Bachelor Mechanical Engineering.. See here for the compete description of the module.
Academic Research & Skills 1
This course consists of two parts:
Preparation bachelor assignment
The course Academic Research & Skills offers a thorough acquaintance with the ‘world of scientific research’ to prepare students for the bachelor thesis.
During the lectures, you will learn what scientific research implies, why it is important and what aspects you have to take in to account when preparing and doing research. Topics such as plagiarism, research ethics and societal impact will be part of the course.
Besides this, you will prepare for your bachelor thesis by writing a research proposal addressing an existing research problem offered by one of the research chairs.
After choosing an assignment, you will perform a literature study to find out what research has been performed on this topic and where so called ‘white spots’ can be found. Based on this literature study, you will specify your own research question and write a research proposal to answer this question.
During the writing of your proposal, supervision from staff member of the research chair you chose will be available. During the lectures you will receive information, tools and practice assignments to help you find the necessary literature, write your proposal and report in a scientific way. Peer review is used for feedback and critical reflection.
The course will be completed with a written report.
Societal embedding
To value the impact of Mechanical Engineering research and design, you obtain conceptual tools in the area of Technology Assessment (TA). We will have a look at the technical and social complexity in mutual coherence from the socio-constructionistic perspective. For the assessment part of the TA it is required to develop an analysis framework to understand the sort of changes a new technology may cause for the different parties involved and the mutual relations between the different groups. You will also learn to examine your own role as a mechanical engineer with respect to ethics issues of your involvement. You will learn to systematically deal with the responsibility of the engineering profession. You will learn a number of skills to structure problems with linguistic means (rather than mathematic): ‘articulate’, ‘analyze’, and ‘argue’.
This course can only be taken by ME students.
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