Developing innovation competences in engineering education through project-based and challenge-based learning

There is a gap between industry needs and engineering graduates’ competences that since the past two decades has been under discussion. Engineering graduates are perceived as “too theoretical” by the industry and face difficulties when adapting to the practical working context. This gap is being mostly tackled by project-based courses. Furthermore, the expected competences of the future engineers go beyond the purely technical skills. Competences like creativity, innovativeness, business skills, sense of responsibility, problem-based thinking, collaboration, ability to communicate and effectively dealing with stress and uncertainty, among others, will be increasingly important in the future. Innovation competences in particular are key to tackle current societal challenges, but there is limited understanding about what innovation competences are developed through different types of project-based courses. An education that remains only in the scope of technical skills traditionally expected from engineers will eventually limit the capabilities of the engineers to influence strategy and management decisions, as well as concept definition for new products and services. Institutions like ABET, CDIO and ENAEE – EUR-ACE®, highlight these demands for future engineers’ competences. Ultimately, the more engineers master the innovation process beyond the technical aspects, the more impact they can have in shaping the society of the future, and the greater chances they have to position themselves as decision makers. This study discusses what are the innovation competences needed for engineering students and pedagogical approaches to develop those competences, with the aim of understanding how to better design educational strategies to improve innovation competences in future engineering graduates. A broad literature review was developed on existing innovation competences models and pedagogical approaches to develop innovation competences, going from problem-based to project-based learning to challenge-based education, from New Product Development to Design Thinking, and through different strategies to measure innovation competences. Through a mixed method approach, combining quantitative analysis of surveys and qualitative content analysis of project results, we compared two experiential learning courses developed at the UPC Telecom school: a project-based course and a challenge- based course. We compared self-perception on innovation competences using the INCODE (Innovation Competences Development) Barometer and we developed a qualitative content analysis of project results and self-reflection documents of two groups of engineering students from Telecom Engineering school from UPC going through CBI (Challenge Based Innovation) course versus PDP (Product Development Project) course. CBI is an innovative learning experience carried out by three institutions: Telecom Engineering School of UPC, ESADE Business School and IED Instituto Europeo di Design in collaboration with CERN, where mixed teams of students from the three institutions face open innovation challenges through Design Thinking, with the objective of designing solutions to complex societal problems, considering the use of CERN technologies if suitable. PDP is the “standard” capstone course taken by Telecom engineering students following a classical project management approach based on the CDIO framework. Results shows that experiential learning approaches like project-based and challenge-based education are good educational strategies for developing competences and, explicitly, innovation competences in engineering education, but each strategy emphasizes some competences more than others. Project-based courses demonstrates better results in Planning and Managing Projects. Creativity, Leadership and Entrepreneurship are more developed through a challenge-based approach combined with Design Thinking.Existe una brecha entre las necesidades de la industria y las competencias de los graduados en ingeniería que se ha estado debatiendo desde las últimas dos décadas. Los graduados en ingeniería son percibidos como "demasiado teóricos" por la industria y encuentran dificultades para adaptarse al contexto laboral real. Esta brecha se aborda principalmente mediante cursos basados en proyectos, desarrollando las competencias esperadas de los futuros ingenieros, que van más allá de las habilidades puramente técnicas. Competencias como la creatividad, la innovación, las habilidades empresariales, el sentido de la responsabilidad, el pensamiento basado en problemas, la colaboración, la capacidad para comunicarse y afrontar eficazmente el estrés y la incertidumbre, entre otras, serán cada vez más importantes en el futuro. Las competencias de innovación en particular son clave para abordar los desafíos sociales actuales. Pero hay una comprensión limitada sobre qué competencias de innovación se desarrollan a través de diferentes tipos de cursos basados en proyectos. Instituciones como ABET, CDIO y ENAEE - EUR-ACE®, destacan estas demandas de competencias de los futuros ingenieros. Este estudio analiza cuáles son las competencias de innovación necesarias para los estudiantes de ingeniería y los enfoques pedagógicos para desarrollar estas competencias, con el objetivo de comprender cómo diseñar mejores estrategias educativas para el desarrollo de competencias de innovación en los futuros graduados en ingeniería. Se desarrolló una extensa revisión de la literatura incluyendo modelos de competencias de innovación y enfoques pedagógicos existentes para desarrollar competencias de innovación, pasando del aprendizaje basado en problemas al aprendizaje basado en proyectos y la educación basada en retos. También se estudió el desarrollo de nuevos productos (NPD) y el pensamiento de diseño (Design Thinking), así como diferentes estrategias para medir competencias de innovación. A través de un enfoque de métodos mixto, combinando el análisis cuantitativo de encuestas y el análisis de contenido cualitativo de resultados de proyectos, se compararon dos cursos de aprendizaje experiencial desarrollados en la escuela Telecomunicaciones de la UPC: un curso basado en proyectos PDP (Proyecto de desarrollo de producto) y un curso basado en retos (CBI-Challenge Based Innovation). Se analizó la autopercepción sobre competencias de innovación utilizando el Barómetro INCODE (Innovation Competences Development), y se desarrolló un análisis de contenido cualitativo de los resultados de proyectos y documentos de autorreflexión. CBI es una experiencia de aprendizaje innovadora llevada a cabo por tres instituciones: Escuela de Ingeniería de Telecomunicaciones de la UPC, ESADE Business School e IED Istituto Europeo di Design en colaboración con CERN, donde equipos mixtos de estudiantes de las tres instituciones enfrentan desafíos de innovación abierta a través del Design Thinking, con el objetivo de diseñar soluciones a problemas sociales complejos, considerando el uso de tecnologías CERN (si es apropiado). PDP es el curso final ¿estándar¿ que toman los estudiantes de ingeniería de telecomunicaciones siguiendo un enfoque clásico de gestión de proyectos basado en el marco CDIO. Los resultados muestran que los enfoques de aprendizaje experiencial como la educación basada en proyectos y la educación basada en retos son buenas estrategias educativas para desarrollar competencias y, específicamente, competencias de innovación en la educación en ingeniería. Pero cada estrategia enfatiza algunas competencias más que otras. Los cursos basados en proyectos demuestran mejores resultados en la planificación y gestión de proyectos. La creatividad, el liderazgo y el espíritu empresarial se desarrollan más a través de un enfoque basado en retos combinado con Design Thinking.Postprint (published version

Developing innovation competences in engineering students: a comparison of two approaches

The gap between industry needs and engineering graduates’ competences is being tackled by project-based courses, which also help to develop key innovation competences to address current societal challenges. Nevertheless, there is limited understanding about what innovation competences are developed through the different types of project-based courses. This study discusses innovation competences development in these courses with the aim of understanding how to better design educational strategies to improve them. Through content analysis, we compare the outcomes of two groups of Telecom Engineering students undergoing a capstone course following a classical product development project approach and a challenge-based course using Design Thinking. Results show that both course types contribute to developing innovation competences. Nevertheless, depending on the chosen pedagogy some competences are developed further. The traditional project-based course demonstrates better results in Planning and Managing Projects. Creativity, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship are more developed through a challenge-based approach combined with Design Thinking.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::8 - Treball Decent i Creixement EconòmicObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatPostprint (published version

Prototyping the future of learning: reflections after seven iterations of Challenge-Based Innovation (2014-2020)

This article presents the reflections of a multidisciplinary team working on CERN’s Challenge-Based Innovation (CBI) since 2014. These reflections on pedagogy and innovation are positioned at the intersection of experiential learning, design thinking and challenge-driven education.Drawing from seven editions of what has become “CBI Fusion Point,” we present our story as an ongoing journey of experimentation with various formats and methods in response to broader shifts in education. Our article contributes to a better understanding of the characteristics and challenges that CBI-like programs pose and the infrastructure and support that they require.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::8 - Treball Decent i Creixement EconòmicObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatPostprint (published version

Correlation study between the access mark and the performance in project-based and standard courses

The access mark to engineering studies is often used as an a priori success estimator. In our institution, we have observed that the correlation of the access mark with the grades obtained in project-based courses (R=0.52) is slightly lower than the one obtained with the average of the other non-project-based courses (R=0.58), and is especially low in capstone projects (R=0.31). Project-based and Challenge-based courses are one of the most acknowledged ways of promoting the learning of transversal skills, specifically innovation and entrepreneurship skills. In our institution, ICT engineering bachelor students perform a project-courses path, with three subjects of growing complexity in the 2nd, 3d and 4th year. While the first two are partially guided and with challenges proposed by the faculty members, the 3d one is a 12 ECTS capstone project with challenges proposed by industry or external institutions. In this study, we have analyzed the performance of the students along 10 academic years (2011-2012 to 2020-2021). Not only the correlation with the access mark in these courses is lower but the prediction interval is also different. While it is almost impossible that a student with a low access mark gets an outstanding average mark in the bachelor and vice-versa, there are students with a low access mark which have an outstanding performance in the capstone project and students with a very high access mark and with high results in analytical courses but with a poor performance in capstone projects. Therefore, a different kind of skills are promoted in these courses

Investigating students’ self-perception of innovation competences in challenge-based and product development courses

This study analyzes self-perception in innovation competences development in engineering students with the objective of understanding how to better design educational strategies to improve innovation skills in future engineering graduates. The INCODE (Innovation Competences Development)-Rubric 5 survey is used to compare two groups of engineering students from Telecom Engineering school from UPC (Technical University of Catalonia) going through two types of project-based courses: CBI (Challenge Based Innovation) course versus PDP (Product Development Project) course. CBI is an innovative learning experience carried out by three institutions: Telecom Engineering School of UPC, ESADE Business School and IED Istituto Europeo di Design in collaboration with CERN, where mixed teams of students from the three institutions face open innovation challenges through Design Thinking, with the objective of designing solutions to complex societal problems, considering the use of CERN technologies if suitable. PDP is the ‘‘standard’’ capstone course taken by Telecom engineering students following a classical project-management approach. Results show that both courses give a good self-perception of the learning outcomes in the innovation-related skills, according to what is observed in the INCODE surveys’ results when comparing CBI and PDP. The differences found between CBI and PDP are small and only moderately deviated towards CBI in the individual competences dimensionPeer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::4 - Educació de QualitatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::8 - Treball Decent i Creixement EconòmicPostprint (author's final draft

Challenge based education: an approach to innovation through multidisciplinary teams of students using Design Thinking

This work aims to describe and discuss the benefits and learning outcomes detected along four iterations of a learning experience carried out by three institutions: ESADE Business School, IED Istituto Europeo di Design and the Telecom Engineering School of UPC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Mixed teams of students from the three institutions face open innovation challenges with societal interest through Design Thinking. This study is focused on the learning outcomes of engineering students, compared to the ones obtained by Telecom engineering students that follow standard project-based courses. The students spend 3-4 weeks at IdeaSquare, a creative environment created at CERN Meyrin site in Switzerland, where they can consult and interact with scientists and knowledge transfer experts about possible applications and uses of CERN technologies in the student's proposed solutions. One example of a prototyped solution is a low-cost sensor-based system to detect malfunction in water wells in Africa, which uses SMS-based communication and cloud-based solutions to manage wells repairs. As a result, the ICT engineering students increase their awareness of user needs and the relevance of the problems to focus on when tackling a complex challenge. They also increase their ability to ideate more disruptive and high-impact solutions thanks to their understanding of the »big picture» based on their interactions with design and business students.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version