Teaching engineering design in a four-course sequence

Engineering design is an art that takes skill, training, knowledge, and effort. It is one of the most difficult subjects to teach at engineering schools. A typical design course requires students to perform design tasks without explanation of the design methodology. With the ever-changing demands of the society and advances of technology, teaching engineering design effectively has become an urgent agenda in many engineering programs worldwide. The Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria had been offering a single engineering design project course for its programs since the 1980s. It was only till late 2000s that its curricula were revised and have been re-visited continuously since then. The latest programs have a sequence of four compulsory design project courses. This work presents an introduction and evolution of these design project courses. Issues and problems encountered, as well as solutions, are described. Successes, failures, and lessons learned are also discussed.