DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/0020720918754831

Summary
The paper presents the final year project for engineering degree students. The introduced project fulfills the requirements that the student must use innovative and creative ways to solve complex engineering problems, apply knowledge of various disciplines (mathematics, natural sciences, engineering), and perform creative design and synthesis of components, systems, products, and processes. The project aim is to design an electrodynamic suspension system in which an aluminium disc suspended above two concentric coils. The authors provide the theoretical description of magnetic levitation, mathematical description of the system and its numerical finite element model, description of the experimental setup, and results of the experiments and analysis. The authors state that the described problem can be used to teach the complex engineering problems in the final course as it demonstrates the combination of various disciplines, namely, mathematics, numerical modelling, electromagnetics, and mechanics.

Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
The article justifies that the complex problem of modelling and analysis of electrodynamic suspension of an aluminum disc is a complex problem which fulfills the requirements of the final year project. The solution of this problem includes problem solving as the student must demonstrate skills to identify, formulate and analyze complex engineering problems. In order to demonstrate theoretical knowledge and practical application, student provides mathematical formulation based on laws of electromagnetics and mechanics together with its solution using finite element method. The results were verified with the experiments.
Student’s skills of analysis were demonstrated by analyzing and comparing analytical, experimental results and results obtained in the numerical simulation. The description of this problem shows a combination of theoretical and practical approaches to solve a problem which requires knowledge and skills of different scientific fields.

Point of Strength
The strength of this article is that is provides a detailed explanation how the complex engineering problem of electrodynamic suspension can be formulated, analyzed and solved by using knowledge of mathematics, natural sciences and engineering fundamentals and specialties, demonstrating skills required to solve problems and perform creative design of systems and their components.