ES 1050 making an impact

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Western Engineering professors (left to right) Jacob Reeves, Kevin McGuire, Angela Mawdsley and John Dickinson. 

Western Engineering, through the ES 1050 course offered by the John M. Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership and Innovation, partnered with the George Bray Sports Association for an important project. ES 1050 students applied design thinking practices to reduce barriers to playing hockey for children and youth with disabilities.

ES 1050, the Foundations of Engineering Practice, is led by professors John Dickinson and Angela Mawdsley. More than 800 Western Engineering's first-year students were assigned an opportunity to apply design thinking principles to support vulnerable citizens in the London area. 

Through innovative design practices, their goal was to bring joy, efficiency and relief from some aspect of a difficult way of being. Among their clients in 2024 was the George Bray Sports Association, the local hockey league for members of the community with physical, emotional, and intellectual challenges that prevent them from successfully joining mainstream leagues. Some of the more brilliant solutions provided by students in their annual Spring showcase went on to receive further research efforts championed by these professors. 

Notable among these efforts was one area of research recognized in August 2024 as being among the most interesting undertaken by all summer research students, in all years, across all engineering departments. This prize-winning work related to hearing impairment was accomplished without an in-department laboratory, without traditional funding, by a first-year student, and being led by an instructor not holding a PhD. 

Read more about the magic of design thinking and the John M. Thompson Centre for Engineering Leadership and Innovation in this article on The Conversation.