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The post-16 stage of education is critical in securing and developing people entering engineering professions and related occupations. Engineering employers and employees alike have however highlighted problems regarding poorly designed curricula failing to prepare employees for industrial and commercial roles. The premise of this thesis is that the issue confronting education is one of quality management. Curriculum designers must know how to anticipate and understand customer requirements and practically translate these requirements into a deliverable curriculum package. The aim of this research is to realise the synergy of curriculum design and TQM by developing a theoretical integrated curriculum design method. Synergies between TQM and traditional curriculum design methods are investigated and an integrated curriculum design method based on the use of PDCA and incorporating a two-phase modified use of QFD is hypothesised and justified. Subsequently, application of the curriculum design method is completed in relation to a number of selected engineering companies within the South Wales region and an appropriate curriculum proposal, for the provision of engineering education within the 16-18 year age group is produced. The proposal has been constructed with characteristics complementary to the competencies required by these companies and incorporates the most suitable teaching, learning and assessment methods to maximise the development of the students. This is valuable information for those concerned.

In this Ph.D. project, we aim to understand degradation of nanomachines by studying the mechanisms that lead to the in vitro degradation of molecular shuttles, which are nanoscale active systems composed of kinesin motor proteins and cytoskeletal filaments called microtubules. In addition, we aimed to improve learning outcomes by designing a hybrid college-level engineering course combining case-based and lecture-based teaching. The creation of complex active nanosystems integrating cytoskeletal filaments propelled by surface-adhered motor proteins often relies on microtubules’ ability to glide for up to meter-long distances. Even though theoretical considerations support this ability, we show that microtubule detachment (either spontaneous or triggered by a microtubule crossing event) is a non-negligible phenomenon that has been overlooked until now. Furthermore, we show that under our conditions (100, 500, 1000 motors per µm2 and 0.01 or 1 mM ATP), the average gliding distance before spontaneous detachment ranges from 0.3 mm to 8 mm and depends on the gliding velocity of the microtubules, the density of the kinesin motors on the glass surface, and time. Wear, defined as the gradual removal of small amounts of material from moving parts of a machine, as well as breakage, defined as the rupture of a material, are two major causes of machine failure at the macroscale. Since these mechanisms have molecular origins, we expect them to occur at the nanoscale as well. Here, we show that microtubules propelled by surface-adhered kinesin motors are subject to wear and breakage just like macroscale machines. Furthermore, the combined effect of wear, breakage and microtubule detachment from the surface of the flow cell permit to predict how molecular shuttles degrade in vitro. Taking a step back and looking at science in a broader sense, we can say that science does not only consist of acquiring knowledge, but also relies on one’s ability to transmit his/her knowledge. In this regard, one of the biggest challenges in education is to be efficient, that is to say to design a teaching method that would both maximize the student’s retention of information and prepare them to apply their knowledge to real-life situations. We considered this challenge as an integral part of this Ph.D. project, and we tackled it by designing a novel type of engineering course in which the students’ involvement in the learning process plays a central role. To do so, we combined, in a single engineering course, both of the approaches to learning that are used in Engineering education and in Business schools. The final chapter of this manuscript summarizes the findings of the two projects presented here and discusses the future research that can be conducted on the basis of this thesis.