The incorporation of engineering design projects into core undergraduate engineering courses can be a powerful method to facilitate student learning. This paper describes a project centred around the design of a solar storage wall (SSW)—an asymmetric structure that is used to capture solar energy for building heating. The project, which combines computer-based engineering modelling and economic analysis, is assigned to undergraduate students in a three-semester-hour introductory heat and mass transfer course at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
