Collaborative Teaching Laboratory

Introduction

Collaboration is a really important part of the student experience in laboratories. Most of what's done is not done by individuals but as in industry, it's done by teams of people.

Welcome to the Collaborative Teaching Laboratory.

Building Layout

The building is divided into three floors: the upper floor is the wet lab which serves chemistry and chemical engineering and environmental sciences.

In the middle floor, we have the E-lab which is the largest computer cluster on campus and then on the ground floor, we have the dry lab which serves subjects like electronic engineering, geology, and earth sciences.

Dry Lab

I'm working with other mechanical engineers but also a civil and an electrical engineer and we're designing a light aircraft. It's really useful to be able to work together with other disciplines and have the space to do that. It's much more like in industry.

The microscopes are fully digitized which makes my job a lot easier. If I can just take a picture and annotate and get very accurate measurements from them. I also come here outside of lesson time to use as a normal study space; me and friends can come here to the wide open area with lots of tables to complete group work and projects together.

In the dry lab we work on embedded microprocessor system lab activities as well as robotic project activities. It promotes collaborative teaching and learning and it has really given us a chance to work together with our course mates to share ideas and knowledge.

CTL kind of links between the University and Industry together, because of how quick the equipment are, and how powerful they are will help me and my course - people especially - to build up our confidence whene we go into placement years.

Out in the real world, all the things are not divided by subject areas. Challenges are multidisciplinary ,and you'll see exciting new things developing in this building in the future.