Incorporation of Well-Defined Engineering Problems (WDEP) and Activities (WDEA) in the Final Year Project of a Diploma in Chemical Engineering Program

This paper shares the experience of the program of Diploma in Chemical Engineering (CEEH110), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak Branch in reforming the course of the final year project (CHE365) to improve compliance against the accreditation standard by the Engineering Technology Accreditation Council (ETAC), especially regarding the incorporation of well-defined engineering problem (WDEP) and well-defined engineering activities (WDEA), as well as the knowledge and attitude profile (DK). For this purpose, assessment evaluation rubrics were constructed in this paper with the extensive and explicit implementation of WDEP, WDEA, and DK, amidst the challenges posed by the nature of the course itself which requires an open-ended approach toward problem-solving. The result from the course reformation was presented in terms of Program Outcome (PO) attainment, where commendable PO attainment can be observed across the board by all students. It is hoped that this paper may offer valuable insight and lessons learned that can inform similar curricula, in particular with the incorporation of WDEP and WDEA in their syllabus to meet the stringent requirements of engineering accrediting bodies.