CDIO and the European Project Semester: a match for capstone projects?

The CDIO Initiative is an open innovative educational framework for engineering graduation degrees set in the context of Conceiving – Designing – Implementing – Operating real-world systems and products, which is embraced by a network of worldwide universities, the CDIO collaborators. A CDIO compliant engineering degree programme typically includes a capstone module on the final semester. Its purpose is to expose students to problems of a greater dimension and complexity than those faced throughout the degree programme as well as to put them in contact with the so-called real world, in opposition to the academic world. However, even in the CDIO context, there are barriers that separate engineering capstone students from the real world context of an engineering professional: (i) limited interaction with experts from diverse scientific areas; (ii) reduced cultural and scientific diversity within the teams; and (iii) lack of a project supportive framework to foster the complementary technical and non-technical skills required in an engineering professional. To address these shortcomings, we propose the adoption of the European Project Semester (EPS) framework, a one semester student centred international capstone programme offered by a group of European engineering schools (the EPS Providers) as part of their student exchange programme portfolio. The EPS package is organised around a central module – the EPS project – and a set of complementary supportive modules. Project proposals refer to open multidisciplinary real world problems and supervision becomes coaching. The students are organised in teams, grouping individuals from diverse academic backgrounds and nationalities, and each team is fully responsible for conducting its project. EPS complies with the CDIO directives on Design-Implement experiences and provides an integrated framework for undertaking capstone projects, which is focussed on multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork, problem-solving, communication, creativity, leadership, entrepreneurship, ethical reasoning and global contextual analysis. As a result, we recommend the adoption of the EPS within CDIO capstone modules for the benefit of engineering students

Undergraduate mechanical engineering design courses at the University of Johannesburg from an accreditation perspective

Abstract: The undergraduate Mechanical Engineering Design curriculum in the Department of Mechanical Engineering Science at the University of Johannesburg is discussed in this paper. The emphasis is on accreditation by the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) and accompanying international accreditation through the Washington accord. The course content in the four undergraduate years of study is given in short. Measures to meet accreditation targets, including required exit level outcomes, set by ECSA are spelt out. The CDIO principle is also considered and the level of compliance with the CDIO requirements is indicated

5th Annual Symposium of the United Kingdom & Ireland Engineering Education Research Network: Time for change

The proceedings of the 5th symposium of the UK & IE Engineering Education Network set about challenging the status quo in all areas of engineering education. Over two days colleagues discussed and debated a number of issues ranging from engineering in schools and attracting young people into engineering, to innovative engineering pedagogies. The highly contentious question of whether ‘maths’ is, or is not, a vital prerequisite to studying engineering at university was debated whilst an expert panel asked the question “Are engineering educators fit for purpose?”.Needless to say the Symposium proved to be a lively event. In an attempt to provide the engineering education community with a taste of the debates the short Symposium Papers presented here represent ‘the tip of the iceberg’ with regards to the wide range of problems and solutions discussed and proposed. Divided into three main sections this publication shows that the Symposium did indeed achieve its objective of ‘challenging the status quo’. The papers presented in the first section argue the case for change in engineering education. Whilst the second section turns to look at engineering education practice and pedagogy, with an additional section included to assure non-expert researchers are given a voice. The final section brings the document to a close with a number of papers that look at how colleagues across the UK are beginning to innovate change in the engineering classroom and beyond

Deliberate Practice Makes Perfect! Developing Logbook Keeping as a Professional Skill through CDIO

Deliberate practice, including focused practice time by students, feedback from experts, mentors, educators or peers, and student reflection[1] is needed in order to develop and excel in any skill. This study looks at whether deliberate and directed practice can be used to develop professional engineering skills in a CDIO teaching setting, using logbook keeping as a key example

The Global Engineer : Incorporating global skills within UK higher education of engineers

Background. The Marburg virus (MARV) has a negative-sense single-stranded RNA genome, belongs to the family Filoviridae, and is responsible for several outbreaks of highly fatal hemorrhagic fever. Codon usage patterns of viruses reflect a series of evolutionary changes that enable viruses to shape their survival rates and fitness toward the external environment and, most importantly, their hosts. To understand the evolution of MARV at the codon level, we report a comprehensive analysis of synonymous codon usage patterns in MARV genomes. Multiple codon analysis approaches and statistical methods were performed to determine overall codon usage patterns, biases in codon usage, and influence of various factors, including mutation pressure, natural selection, and its two hosts, Homo sapiens and Rousettus aegyptiacus. Results. Nucleotide composition and relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) analysis revealed that MARV shows mutation bias and prefers U- and A-ended codons to code amino acids. Effective number of codons analysis indicated that overall codon usage among MARV genomes is slightly biased. The Parity Rule 2 plot analysis showed that GC and AU nucleotides were not used proportionally which accounts for the presence of natural selection. Codon usage patterns of MARV were also found to be influenced by its hosts. This indicates that MARV have evolved codon usage patterns that are specific to both of its hosts. Moreover, selection pressure from R. aegyptiacus on the MARV RSCU patterns was found to be dominant compared with that from H. sapiens. Overall, mutation pressure was found to be the most important and dominant force that shapes codon usage patterns in MARV. Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first detailed codon usage analysis of MARV and extends our understanding of the mechanisms that contribute to codon usage and evolution of MARV

Sustainable international experience: A collaborative teaching project

Within engineering education, there is an increasing need for providing our students with international experiences. This is most often done by exchange studies abroad. However, a majority of the students on engineering programs do not engage in any international exchange. This paper presents insights from a collaborative cross-disciplinary international project to give students international experience without having to travel. From both a sustainability perspective and a situation where e.g. a global virus outbreak stop students from travelling, solutions that give engineering students experience of working in an international setting are becoming increasingly important. Initial challenges, for the teachers involved in the project, that were addressed before the project started, included the assessment of students, the use of online collaborative tools, assessment of students and the dependence between the two courses. The learnings from the first and second iteration of the collaborative project were mainly focused around transparency, introduction of students to each other, communication, real-time issues and deadlines. By gradually remove these peripheral challenges for the students, resulting in making the students focus on the actual challenges surrounding the actual collaborative project. Even though this project is ongoing, the initial results clearly show that by integrating courses between different countries and disciplines, it is possible to create an environment that strengthens the students’ ability in teamwork, communication and addresses the cultural and professional aspects of working as an engineer in an international context