Junior Sophister Engineering – 3E3
Course name
3E3 Management for Engineers
Lecturer(s)
Dr Niamh Harty (hartyn@tcd.ie) – Course Coordinator
Ms Joanna Gardiner (jgardiner@ovelle.ie)
Course organisation
The course is taught in two parts; the first part, Entrepreneurship, runs in the first semester and the second part, Communication, runs in the second.
| Semester | Start week | End week | Lectures Per Week | Lectures Total | Tutorials Per Week | Tutorials Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| 2 | 14 | 24 | 1 | 11 | 1 | 11 |
| Total Contact Hours: 44 per student per year | ||||||
Course description, aims and contribution to programme
Semester 1: Entrepreneurship
This part of the course focuses on fostering a sense of entrepreneurship among the JS students by requiring them to come up with a business idea and to then turn this business idea into a business plan.
Semester 2: Communications
The aim of this part of the course is to enable the students to communicate well in engineering contexts, both when Italking about projects and when writing about them.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this course the student will be able to:
- prepare a business plan, including details of marketing, market research, finance, legal issues and growth;
- preapre and deliver a presentation.
Course content
The course covers the following topics:
Semester 1
- coming up with a business plan;
- marketing;
- feasibility;
- market research;
- legal issues and ethics;
- finance and accounting;
- business plan;
- ethics;
- growth of the business.
Semester 2
- intersubjectivity;
- emails;
- reports;
- presentations;
- intercultural communication.
Course notes
http://www.tcd.ie/Engineering/Courses/BAI/JS_Subjects/3E3/
Teaching strategies
Semester 1: Entrepreneurship
In general, engineers have a great ability to identify new products and processes that have potential for commercialisation. However, they often lack the skills necessary to progress their idea beyond conception.
The course will be a highly practical one. The primary objective is for the students (divided into groups of no more than 4) to come up with a business idea and, over the 11 weeks, develop it into a completed business plan.
Each group's idea will be explored and expanded in tutorials. This will be coupled with lectures on the practical aspects of starting a business (market research, funding, branding, marketing). Case studies and guest lectures from entrepreneurs (some with backgrounds in engineering) will be used to further highlight the elements that make a company successful.
Semester 2: Communication
Lectures on various aspects of communication will include practical advice together with the theoretical basis for good communication practice. Assignments will be completed during tutorial sessions and include producing an annotated bibliography, a summary and giving a brief oral presentation.
Assessment
Four assignments will be set in the first semester, three in the second plus a final examination at the end of the academic year based on the work of both semesters.
The first semester counts for 50% of the overall work in 3E3 with 60% of this based on continuous assessment and 40% from the final written examination. The second semester also counts 50% towards overall end-of-year grade with 40% of this from continuous assessment and 60% from the final written examination.
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