CS382:Unit-engineering

Alternately, we could do something with engineering. Develop structual models, and see what sort of crazy structures you could make that would stand on their own. There's already some rudimentary stuff to do this with, such as Bridgebuilder, but if we could possibly do something more complicated, it might be interesting.

http://www.bridgebuilder-game.com/ - Bridgebuilder. http://www.freebyte.com/cad/dynamic.htm - Some links to CAD Software. I haven't had time to try any of it out yet, but the descriptions look promising.

The way I see the whole unit starting out is with a brief lecture / discussion about the basic forces and/or challenges in Engineering. You have a certain structure you want to build, but you need to account for the materials you'll use, the possible stresses on the structure, etc.

There would be a lab about building something. Either a bridge, or possibly something using the CAD software. Functionality would be the most important aspect of what's build, but there could possibly be extra credit for efficiency? For looks? Something along those lines.