For many years, educators have been developing tools and techniques to improve the learning process in higher education; however, the vast majority of these do not focus directly on deep learning. In this work, an innovative teaching/learning tool is presented which focuses on deep learning of some engineering skills and principles. The tool is known as the undergraduate cross-class research project (UCCRP) which relies on hands-on projects that students can work on throughout their 4-6 years of undergraduate studies with a mixture of students from all undergraduate levels and mentored by peers, TAs, and instructors. The UCCRP was successfully implemented at Texas A&M University at Qatar and the details of one project and its results are delineated here. Student self-assessment, competency based assessment, and the "structure of the observed learning outcome (SOLO)" technique are used to assess the level of attainment of the intended learning outcomes (ILOs).