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Publication
CDIO and the European Project Semester: a match for capstone projects?
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
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.
Description
Keywords
Engineering education Project-based learning Student-centred learning Multicultural teamwork Multidisciplinary teamwork CDIO Standards 1, 7, 8, 9, 11
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Benedita Malheiro; Manuel Silva; Paulo Ferreira; Pedro Guedes. CDIO and the European Project Semester: a match for capstone projects?, Trabalho apresentado em 11th International CDIO Conference, In Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu, 2015.