Principles and pedagogies that shape a final year integrated engineering project
Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa
Accredited engineering programmes call upon students to develop a wide range of knowledge, skills and competencies. These range from problem solving, design, scientific and engineering knowledge through to transferable skills such as communications, teamwork, information technology and professionalism.
Through an integrated computer project, general pedagogy such as problem-based learning where learning objectives align with real worlds tasks and context are employed to deliver against core principles such as knowledge integration, problem-based learning, authenticity, imbedded skills and self-efficacy for a new way of teaching aimed at developing students’ knowledge, skills and competencies while meeting a diverse range of learning outcomes. This integrated experience demonstrates the vitality of learning that takes place in the context of authentic engineering problems and processes; for example, a series of connected activities which are discipline specific but also overlap to serve the design of a small development. This paper looks at the principles, pedagogies, outcomes and assessment of an integrated computer project which creates a connected opportunity that joins distinct disciplines at key points during the student’s experience to provide preparation for a professional engineering experience. It describes the implementation, assessment and impact of these approaches.
"Embedded Systems" international master's programme
St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation, Russian Federation
The paper describes the “Embedded systems” international masters’ educational program from the first implementation steps until the final version. The motivation of the program development was to produce the high-quality engineers for the industry, with the knowledge of English in addition to native Russian language, abilities to implement the projects, work in international project teams and study in international student groups. These skills are valuable for modern Russian industrial companies. The groups on this program are composed of the students from Russia, France and Finland.
We decided to take the CDIO approach as the framework for implementing the whole program in accordance with these educational standards. In order to meet the real expectations of the industry and of the students on which skills and competences would they need in future, we have conducted several interviews with the key program stakeholder: the current students, the alumni, the prospective employers and the faculty members of the department. We have designed four questionnaires for these groups and offered to the stakeholders to fill them. The results the survey demonstrate the current approach of the program implementation flow.
Based on the stakeholders’ feedback we have designed a new integrated curriculum. This new curriculum incorporates several updates on: the students’ work in projects, new engineering disciplines related to embedded systems, telecommunications, modelling, and several supplementary non-engineering courses.
The previous curriculum had one day of Research work per week. Unfortunately, the time was not effectively dedicated to the research work, therefore, we replaced this activity by the work on real-life industrial projects. The project results are used for the master degree final thesis. Besides, we have attracted the professionals from the airspace industry to mentor students’ projects. Currently, master students participate in the projects on the development of the networking technologies for the on-board systems of spacecraft. A brand new dedicated workspace the “Engineering Workspace” has been created for students of the program to work on project tasks anytime during the day.
Each of the components of the implementation of the new program provided us with a valuable experience that we want to share in this paper. The redesign of the MS educational program and implementation of the CDIO approach offered a good opportunity to combine the scientific knowledge with the practical experience, increase the quality of the graduates and find a new partner Universities and partners from the industry.
In this paper we describe in details our experience of implementation of the modern international masters’ program in the Russian polytechnic university. Our experience could be of use for the other university management, faculty and the students, who intends to follow the modern trends in education.
Decision Skills in Engineering Programs - a key for a VUCA era
1IMT Atlantique Graduate School of Engineering, Lab-STICC, UMR CNRS 6285, France; 2Reykjavik University, Iceland; 3Consultant in project evaluation, Lyon, France
Judgment and decision skills are now essential graduate attributes for the future engineer, in particular for facing the more frequent than ever volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world in both professional and societal situations. One of the responsibilities of engineering programs is to train engineering students to be agile and capable of taking decisions in challenging VUCA situations. This paper presents conceptual and practical results of an European project which explored and iteratively analysed innovative educational learning and teaching activities to train decision-making skills.
Following a design-based research approach, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis, the four VUCA dimensions were categorized, the relevant decision skills were defined and activities to train decision skills were tested and evaluated. One outcome of this work is a rational selection of learning activities based on experiential learning to train specific decision-making skills, which can be integrated in the engineering curriculum. These learning and teaching activities are freely available for adaption in engineering programs. In addition, six reference models were proposed and delineated, in an effort to support the integration processes of curriculum revisions for engineering education.
Baseline 2020 in engineering research projects in a private Institution of Higher Education.
1Faculty of Engineering, Catholic University of Córdoba, Argentine Republic; 2National University of Córdoba, Argentine Republic
The present Baseline 2020 study is an applied investigation, carried out with the purpose of describing the current situation of the active research projects in the Faculty of Engineering. This information can be compared with objective subsequent measurements, as well as, can serve for generate changes in research institutional policy.
The purpose of this documentary study was to analyze the social relevance, multidisciplinarity and diversity of the object of study of research.
This study register the characteristics of the projects, beneficiaries (the students of the last years of the engineering careers), links with productive activities or services offered. The study method included the determination of the sampling skills, specification of the study variables and generation, storage and analysis of the data.
This referential framework has made it possible to demonstrate the strong presence of topics related to applicable technologies, but also the abundance of presentations aimed at solutions to environmental problems and sustainable development, and a few, oriented to take care of the health of populations.
There was also an imbalance between investments in rented dedications of researchers and project operating funds. Registered insufficient participation in financing projects granted by companies, associations or state agencies.
In turn, the potentialities of the valued research projects are high, in relation to their social projection due to the requirement to attend humanistic education programs and to encourage the participation of undergraduate students.
After presenting a characterization of the general problem, a proposal for a new research agenda was generated by set innovative goals. The institution will prioritize the need to search for alternative financing mechanisms that involve the national and international private productive sector.