Abstract
Universities are coming under increasing pressure to re-invent the way that engineering is taught in order to produce graduates that are capable of meeting the skills needs of the country’s industries. This paper described an active project where Design Thinking (DT) methodology is being applied in a novel way to Engineering Curriculum Development. Enterprise partners from a range of different manufacturing sectors participated in a series of Curriculum Development workshops and the results were cross referenced with subjects taught on existing engineering programmes internationally. This process highlighted the need for increased training in Lean, 6-Sigma, transversal and soft skills competencies, and the need to review how and when content is delivered. A survey was developed from the results of the workshops and sent out to a larger cohort of industry contacts for feedback on the proposed Engineering curriculum. Design Thinking methodology has helped ensure our customers’ needs are met by building the curriculum framework around competencies identified by both industry and academia while ensuring the students engage in a significant learning experience through experiential and applied learning using the latest immersive technologies.
Highlights
There is significant rationale and appetite institutionally, regionally, and nationally for a new way of designing, developing and delivering engineering education in Ireland, drawing on expertise and experience internationally in the field of engineering education reform
This paper described the approach that the Rethinking Engineering Education in Ireland (REEdI) project is using to develop a Bachelor of Engineering (Honors) Degree in Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering at Munster Technological University (MTU)
This paper aimed to demonstrate one aspect of the REEdI approach linked to points 1–6 above: how an adapted version of Design Thinking (DT) methodology can be applied in Engineering Curricula design with Industry partners from the Automotive, AgriTech, MedTech, Pharmaceutical, and general manufacturing sectors
Summary
There is significant rationale and appetite institutionally, regionally, and nationally for a new way of designing, developing and delivering engineering education in Ireland, drawing on expertise and experience internationally in the field of engineering education reform. There is an increasing argument that engineering education in Ireland is risking being a barrier to economic growth in the country [1]. Universities are coming under increasing pressure to re-invent the way that engineering is taught to students, with the ultimate aim of producing engineering graduates that are capable of meeting the skills needs of the country’s industries and into the future. A recent report by Engineers Ireland, the representative body for engineering professionals in Ireland, outlined that 91% of engineering employers identified skills shortages as a significant barrier to growth within the industry [1]. The skills shortages identified were in the technical areas of engineering, and in the areas of transversal skills. Engineering employers struggle to fill roles in the mechanical and manufacturing engineering professions, which has an annual employment growth rate of 16.6% [1]
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