Five weeks of teamwork has culminated in an exhibition of students’ design projects at the Central Queensland University in Rockhampton on Thursday.

Fifteen teams were involved in the design projects which included designs for grey water waste treatment and remote area power supply. The project for grey water waste treatment showed how separators could purify water from washing machines and sinks to be re-used for flushing toilets. The remote area power supply design provided costings and usage of alternative power supplies for a Western Australian property.

The students were from the first year Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor or Engineering (Co-op) programs from CQU Rockhampton and Mackay. The exhibition gave the students the chance to share their design concepts with the community.

CQU lecturer in Engineering Ian Devenish said he was impressed by the students’ design work. “The work is of a high standard and we are pleased with the quality of the projects,” Mr Devenish said.

“They have been working on the design projects for five weeks and this is their first opportunity to display their finished design.

The Bachelor of Engineering and Bachelor of Engineering (Co-op) programs at CQU involve project-based learning. In the first year the students work in teams on projects designed to develop knowledge, skills and attitude.

“The design project allows the students to bring together the skills learnt in earlier projects into an engineering design, and the exposition provides a learning experience for the students that is different from the usual method of presenting projects in presentations or reports,” Mr Devenish said.