CONTEXT Students studying mechanical engineering are exposed to a range of engineering design methodologies to aid them through a variety of engineering design tasks. In a 4th year mechanical systems design class, mechanical engineering students were given a broad design task for a situation where they need to ideate, evaluate, and develop concepts to aid someone with reduced limb function due to a cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). This type of design problem is topical, as engineers are increasingly required to incorporate universal design principles such that the products they develop can be used by a diverse group of users. This study provide insight into how well undergraduate students compete a design task which requires them to empathise with a use that has different function to themselves. PURPOSE Few researchers have investigated the development of empathy in undergraduate mechanical engineering students as they complete a conceptual design task. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students’ empathy, in terms of their understanding of the specific requirements, limitations and life perspective of an end user with a cervical SCI develop during a concept design task. This data will provide useful insights that will enable the current teaching method to be evaluated and improved. METHODOLOGY Three anonymous online surveys were completed with the class to gather information regarding how students’ self-reported understanding of the end users’ requirements, limitations and life perspective change over the course of the design task. To compare student responses to how well their designs could be used by an individual with a cervical SCI, the designs submitted by students were evaluated against three objective measures. ACTUAL OUTCOMES The results of the surveys showed that students’ self-reported understanding of requirements, limitations and life perspective increased throughout the duration of the conceptual design task. Students commented on the value of discussing the details of the project with both a registered physiotherapist and an individual with a C6 cervical SCI. When the concept designs were compared to the results from the objective measures, many students had submitted designs that were ultimately unusable by the target population of the design problem. This result indicated that many students overestimated their self-reported understanding of the end user. CONCLUSIONS This work highlighted that the current teaching methods enabled students to increase their self reported empathy and understanding for the end user through the completion of a conceptual design task. However, many students were not able to accurately evaluate their own understanding, as solutions were submitted that were unable to be used independently by the Proceedings of AAEE 2024, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand. Copyright © George Stilwell, Shayne Gooch, 2024 target population. Future work could investigate changes to the current teaching methods. This could include the development of an alternative or virtual reality experience to help student develop a better understanding of the unique challenges of people who have reduced function.