PRELIMINARY EXPERIENCE FROM THE T-SAT PROJECT

The design of complex systems requires input from many disciplines including science, engineering technology, business, and law. Students from a single department are seldom exposed to interdisciplinary projects through classroom activities. Such multi-facet experience is obtained through extracurricular activities and design competitions. The Canadian Satellite Design Challenge was recently introduced to design, build, test, and launch an operational small satellite. The University of Manitoba has a team of 79 undergraduate and graduate students from several faculties, working together to design a triple pico-satellite (T-Sat). This paper presents some of the lessons learned from the first phase of the T-Sat project and insight into some of the benefits of interdisciplinary, complex projects on engineering education.