Design-Implement Experiences and Engineering Workspaces

In this chapter, we continue our discussion of the resolution of the second question central to the improvement of engineering education—How can we do better at ensuring that students learn these skills In Chap. 4, we examined how the curriculum can be restructured and re-tasked in order to strengthen the links between the disciplines and weave the necessary skills into the curriculum plan. In this chapter, we examine perhaps the most important device to meet the demands placed on an integrated engineering curriculum, namely, design-implement experiences. 

Design-implement experiences are key features of a CDIO program in that they 

This chapter is written with the support of authors Stefan Hallstrom, Jakob Kuttenkeuler, Robert J. Niewoehner and Peter W. Young. 

An important complementary aspect of a CDIO program is that it also provides workspaces to facilitate hands-on project-based learning. This need not be new space created for this pnrpose, but can be a re-tasked space previously used for classroom or traditional engineering laboratory exercises. 

Recognize the importance of design-implement experiences and supporting engineering workspaces in the educational infrastructure. 

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Self-reports and site visits indicate significant development and high degrees of student engagement in design-implement experiences and engineering workspaces. 

Design-implement experiences set in both the classroom and in modem learning workspaces as the basis for engineering-based experiential learning. 

Design-implement experiences (Std 5) and engineering workspaces (Std 6) seem to be the focns at the start of a program s reform initiatives. 

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