Engineering Workspaces

Wfe shape our buildings thereafter they shape us. (Winston Churchill) 

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Engineering workspaces and laboratories that support and encourage hands-on learning of product, process, and system building, disciplinary knowledge, and social learning... 

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

The physical learning environment for a CDIO program includes traditional teaching and learning spaces, such as classrooms, lecture halls, and seminar rooms, as well as engineering workspaces. These workspaces aim to support the... 

Table 5.2 Essential and desirable attributes of engineering workspaces...

CDIO workspaces do not have to be new, but can use existing spaces. Many universities have student laboratories of the conventional kind that are underutilized. Re-tasking some of this space as engineering workspaces often results in much higher utilization. Our experience is that as the students engage in active work in the new workspaces, both the attractiveness and need for conventional passive smdent laboratories diminishes. It may also be possible to re-task classrooms and meeting rooms for projects that do not require much manufacturing equipment. 

Product, process, and system design and implementation. This category represents the most obvious major mode of teaching and learning that takes place in an engineering workspace. However, it should also be recognized that there are many variations of this mode with different requirements for the design of the workspace. 

Knowledge discovery. Engineering workspaces can also support student research projects. They do so by making accessible to students a range of equipment usually found only in research labs. 

Community building. Engineering workspaces also play a central role in building community among students. In addition to working on their design-implement projects, students use the workspaces to study for disciplinary courses and for... 

Auxiliary uses. In addition to the teaching and learning modes directly linked to program learning outcomes, there are a number of other auxiliary uses for engineering workspaces. 

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