Strengthening CDIO in B.Eng. Final Projects with an Industry Roadmap

The increasing demands from industry present students undertaking their internships and final projects with a correspondingly steepening learning curve. Upon completion of internships and final projects, when the student may leave the company, the true potential value of the activities is often not fully realized due to the limited exchange of information between the company, the university and the student. This paper presents a roadmap for improving knowledge dissemination and value creation for both university and industry along with developing the engineering competencies of the student. Regular evaluations of the design build experiences with the students, industry and academic supervisors (CDIO Standard 5) are essential elements in the process along with the revision of outcomes according to industry stakeholders’ needs (CDIO Standard 2). The process establishes a continuous flow of students undertaking internships and subsequent final projects. An overlap of students, i.e. an intern along with a final project student, combined with strategic meetings ensures knowledge transfer and continued value creation. Furthermore, upon completion of the final project, the student is encouraged to propose a technical profile status report for development efforts for the coming years for the company, including the most important technological elements to support this. This proposal is also used as reference material for the subsequent internship and/or final project. The roadmap has been successfully applied for several semesters within a company producing polymer products for the medical industry and is further detailed in the paper. Students who have undertaken their industrial placement and B.Eng. final project following the roadmap have been required to communicate their findings and conclusions to their peers and supervisors to a greater extent than previously which has strengthened the inherently integrated learning experience (Standard 7).