Manufacturing & design with engineering polymers: Educational aspects of a specialist dissertation in a part-time elective postgraduate mechanical engineering degree course for industry-based students

The elective course on Manufacturing & Design with Engineering Polymers that is available to postgraduate students on the Master of Engineering Design degree programme at The National University of Ireland, Dublin uses active learning to teach students about processing and performance related issues pertinent to polymer engineering for Irish industry. A significant element of this course is undertaken by students preparing a Specialist Dissertation that is pertinent to their particular industry and employer and which simultaneously implements and illustrates many specific topics on the course syllabus (e.g., viscoelasticity, deformation & fracture, processing, design for manufacture, design for strength, etc.). The case of a recent student, employed as a full-time R&D engineer by a company manufacturing viscoelastic pressure relieving pressure pads, is used to illustrate the practical educational issues that arise when implementing such a teaching method. This method of education, i.e., by means of a Specialist Dissertation, proved to be an effective and popular teaching method in that specific concepts that were integral to the aims and objectives of the Manufacturing & Design with Engineering Polymers course were learned actively by the student. This method of teaching works well with relatively small class sizes but does require a tutorial style of involvement between course teacher and students. It is recommended that further uses of this method of teaching within the present context of the Master of Engineering Design degree programme be explored further.