ENGR10006 Engineering Modelling and Design
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · S2 2026ENGR10006 Overview
- Undergraduate level 1
- 12.5 credit points
- S2 2026
- On campus, Parkville
- Three project streams
- Team and individual tasks
ENGR10006 Engineering Modelling and Design is a first-year University of Melbourne subject that takes small teams through the life cycle of a real engineering project.
- Assessed by Team report, plan, video and demo for 60 percent; individual workshop, quiz and skills marks for 40 percent.
- Watch for The individual components together must reach at least 20 of their 40 marks.
- Hardest step Turning workshop results into the method and analysis worth 40 of the 100 report marks.
- How to prepare Keep meeting minutes, test logs and drafts in Microsoft Teams from the first workshop.
What you get in the full ENGR10006 Study & Assessment Guide
- 13 chapters, 64 pages — every assessed topic, week by week
- 35 original practice questions, each with a model answer
- 13 worked examples, solved the way ENGR10006 marks
- 18 computed figures, redrawn from the course’s own numbers
- Before-you-submit checklist for the Project Final Report (35%) — what markers reward, what costs marks
Free on this page: assessment table, chapter map, one worked example, key terms, FAQ. The rest is in the full study & assessment guide.
How ENGR10006 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Project Final Report | 35% | Team report of no more than 30 pages, including an individual contribution statement, due 11.59pm Monday 2 November 2026. Marked on four criteria plus a compliance checklist and moderated by Peer Assessment 3. |
| Project Plan | 10% | Team design planning report, the Team Management Plan, of no more than 5 pages, submitted in Week 6 by 11.59pm Friday 4 September 2026. |
| Project Video Presentation | 5% | Team video of no more than 2 minutes, due in Week 12 by 11.59pm Friday 23 October 2026, moderated by Peer Assessment 2. |
| Project Demo | 10% | Public display and presentation of project outcomes in your Week 12 workshop, assessed against a stream-specific rubric. |
| Workshop Assessments and Peer Assessments · hurdle | 20% | Continuous individual assessment from Week 3 to Week 12: three in-class milestone assessments at 6 percent each, prorated by attendance, plus Peer Assessments 2 and 3 at 1 percent each. |
| Online Assessments · hurdle | 10% | Weeks 2 to 12: workshop prep activities or quizzes, mostly 0.5 percent each, and a 6 percent end-of-module quiz in Week 11. |
| Skills modules · hurdle | 10% | Two self-selected modules at 5 percent each, at least one general and one technical; one due by the end of Week 8 and all by 11.59pm Friday 23 October 2026. |
The weights follow the University's 2026 handbook entry for the subject, which lists seven components summing to 100 percent and attaches one hurdle to the three individual components: the total of all individual hurdle assessments must be passed. The subject's own assessment page states this as a combined individual mark of at least 20 out of 40, and adds that you do not have to pass every individual component separately. The same page splits the handbook's 20 percent continuous component into workshop milestone assessments of 18 percent and peer assessments of 2 percent, and requires workshop attendance for milestone marks. One Lecture 6 summary slide lists the demonstration at 5 percent; the handbook, the assessment page and the stream pages all give 10 percent, which is the figure used here. Peer Assessment 1 is feedback only and carries no marks.
What other students are asking about ENGR10006
- Where can I find lecture notes or study guides for ENGR10006 at UniMelb?
- The ENGR10006 study guide in AskSia Library covers Engineering Modelling and Design in 13 chapters, with the assessment table, a chapter-by-chapter topic map, key terms and a worked example, free to read on this page.
- Is there a final exam in ENGR10006?
- No final exam is listed in the offering this AskSia Library guide is built from; ENGR10006 is assessed by Project Final Report 35%, Project Plan 10%, Project Video Presentation 5%, Project Demo 10%, Workshop Assessments and Peer Assessments 20%, Online Assessments 10%, Skills modules 10%.
- What does ENGR10006 cover on design decisions, feasibility and modelling?
- In AskSia Library's ENGR10006 guide, the Design Decisions, Feasibility and Modelling chapter explains seven team decision methods, technical feasibility, economic and non-economic evaluation criteria, model fidelity and design parameters, variables and constraints.
- What does ENGR10006 cover on team management plan and project planning?
- In AskSia Library's ENGR10006 guide, the Team Management Plan and Project Planning chapter explains plan components and rubric, SMART goals, administrative and technical roles, meeting schedules, risk planning and team communication in Microsoft Teams.
- What does ENGR10006 cover on cad modelling, assembly and technical drawings?
- In AskSia Library's ENGR10006 guide, the CAD Modelling, Assembly and Technical Drawings chapter explains sketch planes and constraints, extrude, revolve, pattern and mirror features, assembly mates, drawing scales and title blocks, laser cutting and 3D printing limits.
Current ENGR10006 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-04 | Project Plan due | 11.59pm, end of Week 6. Team task, 10 percent, one PDF per team. |
| 2026-10-14 | End-of-module quiz opens | 9am Wednesday, open for 48 hours until 9am Friday 16 October. One attempt of 30 minutes, 6 percent. |
| 2026-10-23 | Video presentation and skills modules due | 11.59pm Friday of Week 12. Peer Assessment 2 is completed with the video. |
| 2026-11-02 | Project Final Report due | 11.59pm Monday. 35 percent; Peer Assessment 3 follows. |
Dates are as published in the subject's Canvas assessment pages and Lecture 6 slides for Semester 2, 2026. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What ENGR10006 covers
The subject runs one design process through three projects. Chapters 1 to 3 cover the shared lectures on engineering, design decisions and team planning. Chapters 4 to 6 follow the Speaker Design workshops, 7 to 9 the Autonomous Robot workshops and 10 to 12 the Coastal Flooding workshops. Chapter 13 covers the report, video, demonstration and peer assessment. Each topic links to its free chapter guide.
What Engineers Do and the Grand Challenges
Definition of engineering, engineers versus scientists, future roles, the Grand Challenges and the crash barrier case solved with the Method of the Ideal ResultLecture 2 defines engineering as taking mathematical and scientific knowledge built up through study, experience and practice, and using it with judgement to make economical use of nature's materials and forces for people's benefit.
- The ABET definition of engineering
- Engineers versus scientists
- Can it be done and should it be done
- Five engineering roles of the future
- The fourteen Grand Challenges and four themes
- Crash barrier tender requirements
Design Decisions, Feasibility and Modelling
Seven team decision methods, technical feasibility, economic and non-economic evaluation criteria, model fidelity and design parameters, variables and constraintsEvery design process generates alternatives but ships one.
- Technical feasibility and the laws of nature
- Economic evaluation tools
- Non-economic evaluation criteria
- Seven decision methods in teams
- Reviewing a decision after it is made
- Design parameters, variables and constraints
Team Management Plan and Project Planning
Plan components and rubric, SMART goals, administrative and technical roles, meeting schedules, risk planning and team communication in Microsoft TeamsLecture 5 asks teams to organise themselves before technical work starts.
- Five components of the plan
- Rubric criteria and marks
- SMART project goal
- Objectives as a breakdown list
- Administrative and technical roles
- Meeting schedule and availability
CAD Modelling, Assembly and Technical Drawings
Sketch planes and constraints, extrude, revolve, pattern and mirror features, assembly mates, drawing scales and title blocks, laser cutting and 3D printing limitsThe speaker stream builds its driver and enclosure in SolidWorks, and robot teams use the same skills for their gripper paddles.
- Planes, origin and MMGS units
- Dimensional, algebraic and geometric constraints
- Extrude, cut and revolve features
- Circular pattern, mirror and fillet
- Six assembly mates
- Drawing scales and title blocks
Speaker Physics, Sound Levels and Simple Circuits
How a driver turns voltage into sound, octaves and driver ranges, sound pressure level in decibels, coil resistance and voltage dividers with Ohm's LawA speaker driver turns a voltage waveform into acoustic pressure waves: current in the coil follows the voltage by Ohm's Law, the coil becomes an electromagnet, and its push and pull against a permanent magnet moves the cone.
- Driver, speaker and speaker system
- Ohm's Law and Ampere's Law in the driver
- Frequency and octaves
- Woofer, midrange and tweeter ranges
- Sound pressure level and decibels
- Coil resistance target
Filters, Equalisers, Crossovers and Speaker Testing
High-pass filter and buffer, equaliser and crossover circuits, the sound-test signal chain, REW frequency response and impedance testing, justifying a cut-offWorkshops 4 to 8 add three circuits to the prototype midrange driver: Circuit 1, a high-pass filter with an op-amp buffer; Circuit 2, an equaliser that boosts or cuts chosen bands; and Circuit 3, a crossover that splits the signal between drivers.
- Circuit 1, high-pass filter and buffer
- Circuit 2, equaliser
- Circuit 3, crossover
- Loading effects and buffering
- Cascaded filter stages
- Demonstration signal chain
Signals, Sensors and Analog-to-Digital Conversion
Analog and digital signals, IR and ultrasonic sensors, affine sensor maps and calibration, sampling, quantisation, bit rate and binary conversionThe robot reads the world through two QTI infrared line sensors and a PING ultrasonic distance sensor, and every reading passes through analog-to-digital conversion before Stateflow can use it.
- Analog and digital signals
- Binary and decimal conversion
- Affine sensor maps and inversion
- IR line sensors and calibration
- Sampling and quantisation
- Bit rate and storage
Servo Motors, PWM and Finite State Machines
PWM duty cycle and average voltage, continuous and standard servos, wheel pulse widths, finite state machines, guards, Boolean operators and Stateflow habitsThe robot's outputs and its decision logic are the subject of Workshops 3 to 6. This chapter explains pulse-width modulation, where the high time within each period sets the average voltage and carries the servo command, and the two servo types on the robot: continuous-rotation wheels that stop at a 1500 microsecond pulse and turn faster as the pulse moves away from it, and a standard gripper servo that holds an angle between 0 and 180 degrees with no angle feedback.
- PWM, duty cycle and average voltage
- Continuous-rotation wheel servos
- Wheel pulse-width table
- Servo transfer characteristic
- Standard gripper servo
- Finite state machine definition
Feedback Control, Line Following and Gripping
Closed-loop structure, the IR error signal, coarse and proportional control with saturation, PID terms, moving-average smoothing and the demonstration rubricClosing the loop is what lets the robot follow an unknown track.
- Closed-loop structure
- Why open-loop timing fails
- IR difference error signal
- Coarse threshold control
- Proportional gain and saturation
- PID terms and tuning
QGIS, Coordinate Systems and Elevation Models
GIS layers, latitude and longitude, DMS conversion, UTM and MGA zones, EPSG codes, planar distance, terrain and surface models, sinks and BOLTSS mapsThe coastal flooding stream works in QGIS, and every result depends on getting coordinates and elevation data right.
- Latitude, longitude and DMS
- Projected coordinate systems
- UTM zones and MGA
- EPSG codes in the project
- Planar Euclidean distance
- Raster and TIN elevation models
Flood Modelling and Temporary Flood Protection
Rainfall, burst-pipe and coastal flood scripts, r.lake, sandbagged DEMs, flood volume, pyramid sandbag counts, labour planning and the flood tank practicalWorkshops 4 to 6 model three kinds of flood in QGIS and then test temporary protection.
- Rainfall, burst-pipe and coastal scenarios
- Raster calculator flood script
- Seeds and water levels in r.lake
- Flood depth and inundation area
- Sandbag layer added to the DEM
- Flood volume from pixel depths
Flood Damage Economics and Real Flood Mapping
Insurance-based loss estimates, the FLFArs depth-damage function and parameter table, proportional symbol maps, and mapping the 2011 Rocklea floodWorkshops 7 to 10 put a price on flooding and then test the models against a real event.
- Insurance-based loss estimates
- Depth-damage function and parameters
- Reading the damage curves
- Loss fields and proportional symbol maps
- Money saved by protection
- Rocklea and the 2011 flood
Reports, Video Presentations, Demos and Peer Scaling
Final report structure, rubric bands and compliance deductions, writing conventions, the two-minute video, stream demonstrations and peer assessment scale factorsMost of the team marks arrive at the end of semester, so this chapter brings the deliverables together.
- Report structure and page limit
- Formatting rules
- Four rubric criteria and bands
- Compliance checklist deductions
- Figures, tables and equations
- Video presentation requirements
It combines subject-wide lectures with three-hour workshop classes in which each student works in one of three semester-long streams: designing, programming and demonstrating an autonomous robot; designing, building and testing an audio speaker system; or modelling and simulating a coastal flooding scenario in QGIS.
The lectures carry the shared ideas, from what engineering is and how the Grand Challenges frame it, to design decisions, feasibility, modelling and project management.
The workshops carry the technical skills of each stream, such as CAD and circuits for the speaker, sensors, servos, state machines and feedback control for the robot, and coordinate systems, elevation models, flood scripts and damage economics for flooding.
The mark is built from team deliverables, a five-page project plan, a two-minute video, a Week 12 demonstration and a final report of up to 30 pages, and from individual work: in-class milestone assessments prorated by attendance, peer assessments, workshop prep activities, an end-of-module quiz and two skills modules.
The individual components carry a combined hurdle. The subject's learning outcomes stress modelling for analysis and design, systematic project management and competence with computer-based tools, so this guide pairs each technical chapter with worked calculations and with the evidence the report rubric rewards.
Read the three shared chapters, the three chapters for your own stream, and the final chapter on reports, videos, demonstrations and peer scaling.
Worked example · free
Estimating flood damage to one house with the depth-damage function
- +1Form the depth ratio: h/H = 1.2 / 3 = 0.4.
- +1Raise it to the power 1/r = 1/1.45 = 0.6897: 0.4 to the power 0.6897 = 0.5316.
- +1Multiply by the maximum damage for a one-storey brick building: 0.5316 × 0.6 = 0.3189, so about 32 percent of the value is lost.
- +1Convert to dollars: 0.3189 × 1,500,000 ≈ $478,400, which is far above the $34,000 average residential insurance claim used in the simpler workshop method.
Key terms
- Design variable
- A design parameter whose value the team is still free to choose.
- Constraint
- A design parameter whose value has been fixed and now limits later choices.
- Technical feasibility
- Whether a design can be built given current technology and the laws of nature.
- SMART goal
- A one-sentence project goal that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound.
- Multiview projection
- A set of parallel-projection views that shows a part's dimensions without perspective distortion.
- Sound pressure level
- A logarithmic measure of sound pressure relative to a 20 micropascal reference, in decibels.
- Quantisation
- Rounding every sample to the closest available level, each level carrying its own bit string.
- Duty cycle
- The share of each PWM period during which the signal is high, which sets the average voltage.
- Finite state machine
- A model that occupies one state at a time from a finite set and moves between states through guarded transitions.
- Proportional control
- Control that turns the robot by an amount proportional to the size of the sensor error.
- Digital elevation model
- A raster or triangulated representation of ground elevation used to simulate floods.
- Depth-damage function
- A curve converting the depth of water entering a building into a fraction of its value lost.
- Scale factor
- A peer-assessment multiplier, usually between 0.8 and 1.2, that moderates a team mark for one member.
ENGR10006 FAQ
How is Engineering Modelling and Design assessed?
The University handbook lists seven components. Team work carries 60 percent: the final report at 35, the project plan at 10, the demonstration at 10 and the video at 5. Individual work carries 40 percent: workshop milestones and peer assessments at 20, online prep activities and the end-of-module quiz at 10, and two skills modules at 10.
What is the individual hurdle in this subject?
The handbook attaches one hurdle to the three individual components: their total must be passed. The subject's assessment page puts this as a combined mark of at least 20 out of the 40 individual marks, and states that you do not need to pass each individual component on its own to meet it.
Which project stream should I study for?
Study the stream you are enrolled in through your workshop: Autonomous Robot, Speaker Design or Coastal Flooding. Each has its own workshops, milestones, end-of-module quiz and demonstration. The shared lecture material on engineering, decisions, planning and reporting applies to every stream and feeds the general sections of every report.
How are milestone marks affected by attendance?
Each stream has three in-class milestones worth 6 percent each. The team earns an in-class mark, and each member receives it multiplied by the share of the covered workshops they attended. In the robot stream, missing one of three workshops turns a team mark of 5 into 3.3 for that member.
When is the final report due and how is it marked?
The final team report is due by 11.59pm on Monday 2 November 2026 and is worth 35 percent. It is marked out of 100 across structure and referencing, communication, method with results and analysis, and discussion, then up to 12 marks are deducted for unmet compliance items such as a missing contents page.
How does peer assessment change my mark?
Peer Assessments 2 and 3 each earn 1 percent for completing reviews and viewing feedback, and their ratings produce a scale factor, usually capped between 0.8 and 1.2. The second factor moderates the video mark and the third moderates the report mark, so contribution affects a large share of your grade.
What are the skills modules and their deadlines?
You complete at least two self-selected modules, one general and one technical, worth 5 percent each. At least one must be finished by the end of Week 8 and all by 11.59pm on Friday 23 October 2026. Missing an enrolled skills workshop without an exemption costs a non-redeemable 2 percent.
Questions students ask in each ENGR10006 chapter
- How does engineering differ from science in this subject?
- Lecture 2 says scientists study the world as it is and usually report knowledge, while engineers create products or processes that must work. The roles overlap, because an engineer may need new science and a scientist may be guided by possible applications. Chapter 01 · What Engineers Do and the Grand Challenges
- What is the difference between a design variable and a constraint?
- A variable is a parameter the team can still choose, such as an enclosure depth. Once its value is fixed, for example by committing to one MDF sheet, it becomes a constraint that limits every later choice. The same quantity can move between the two during a semester. Chapter 02 · Design Decisions, Feasibility and Modelling
- How many meetings should the plan schedule?
- The rubric gives full marks for at least six meetings and half a mark for three to five, but the drafting guide asks for at least eight meeting dates covering each assessed workshop. Scheduling eight or more satisfies both documents and also produces the minutes the final report appendix needs. Chapter 03 · Team Management Plan and Project Planning
- Why does the sketch plane matter in SolidWorks?
- The plane sets the direction of every feature built from the sketch. A cut through a disc must be sketched on a plane parallel to its faces, and the back-panel exercise only mirrors correctly if the quarter sketch sits on the Front Plane with its corner at the origin. Chapter 04 · CAD Modelling, Assembly and Technical Drawings
- Why does a speaker need an amplifier?
- Drivers are passive, and an audio source such as a phone does not supply enough power to move the coil and cone at a useful volume. The handout shows the output is barely audible without amplification, which is why the speaker system includes an amplifier. Chapter 05 · Speaker Physics, Sound Levels and Simple Circuits
- Which circuits must be inside the custom enclosure?
- The custom speaker specification requires Circuit 1, the high-pass filter and buffer, and Circuit 2, the equaliser, to be integrated within the enclosure. The crossover, Circuit 3, is built in Workshop 8 but is not part of the final enclosed system. Chapter 06 · Filters, Equalisers, Crossovers and Speaker Testing
- Why does the tape give a smaller IR reading than the board?
- The Workshop 5 hint states that the sensor value is inversely proportional to the reflected light reading. The light tape reflects more infrared than the dark surface, so the sensor over the tape returns the lower number, and thresholds must be set with that direction in mind. Chapter 07 · Signals, Sensors and Analog-to-Digital Conversion
- Why do the two wheels need different pulse widths to drive straight?
- The wheel servos are mounted facing opposite directions, so to move the robot forward one must turn clockwise and the other counter-clockwise. The behaviour sheet therefore gives 1400 µs to the right wheel and 1600 µs to the left wheel for full speed forward. Chapter 08 · Servo Motors, PWM and Finite State Machines
- What is wrong with coarse line-following control?
- Coarse control turns at one fixed speed whenever the error passes a threshold, so small deviations are ignored and large ones are over-corrected. Workshop 7 replaces it with proportional control, where the turn grows with the error and motor speeds update continuously, giving smoother tracking. Chapter 09 · Feedback Control, Line Following and Gripping
- Why do engineers avoid latitude and longitude for calculations?
- Workshop 3 explains that distances and areas on the curved Earth are intensive and error-prone to compute. Projecting onto a flat surface such as the UTM cylinder gives eastings and northings in metres, so ordinary planar formulas, such as the Euclidean distance, can be used over small areas. Chapter 10 · QGIS, Coordinate Systems and Elevation Models
- Why use r.lake rather than the rainfall expression for a burst pipe?
- The rainfall expression marks every pixel below a level as flooded, whether or not water could reach it. r.lake fills outward from seed cells, such as the rasterised manhole, so only connected low ground floods, which is how a local burst pipe or a coastal surge behaves. Chapter 11 · Flood Modelling and Temporary Flood Protection
- Why are two-storey damage fractions so much lower?
- The parameter table for two-storey buildings covers the lower storey only, and its maximum damage values, 0.42 for timber and 0.34 for brick, are well below the one-storey values of 0.70 and 0.60. The upper storey is assumed to survive a flood that fills the ground floor. Chapter 12 · Flood Damage Economics and Real Flood Mapping
- What is the page limit for the final report?
- The writing guide sets 30 pages, not counting the front pages, meaning the title, abstract and contents, or the appendices. The report must use A4 with 2.5 cm margins, text of at least 12 point, captions at 11 point and 1.5 line spacing. Chapter 13 · Reports, Video Presentations, Demos and Peer Scaling
How to prepare for the assessments
Work in three layers. First, read the shared chapters on engineering, design decisions and the Team Management Plan, because their vocabulary appears in every report: design variables and constraints, evaluation criteria, decision methods, SMART goals and risk planning.
Second, work through your own stream chapter by chapter in workshop order, doing each worked example by hand before checking it, then attempting the practice items without notes.
Speaker students should be fluent with drawing scales, Ohm's Law and reading a frequency response; robot students with A/D arithmetic, pulse widths, guards and proportional control; flooding students with coordinate systems, flood volume, sandbag counts and the depth-damage function. Third, turn everything into report evidence as you go.
Keep minutes of every meeting, a test log with dates, settings and results, and the figures you will need, all in Microsoft Teams, so that the 40-mark method and analysis criterion is written from records rather than memory. In the last fortnight, run the compliance checklist on the real PDF, rehearse the demonstration against its rubric, and complete each peer assessment on time.
