The “INGENIA” Initiative for Promoting CDIO at TU Madrid: Lessons Learned for Enhanced Performance

The implementation of the “Bologna process” has culminated at ETSII-UPM with the beginning of the Master’s Degree in Industrial Engineering, in academic year 2014-15. The program has been successfully approved by the Spanish Agency for Accreditation (ANECA) and includes a set of parallel subjects, based on the CDIO methodology, denominated generally “INGENIA”, linked to the Spanish verb “ingeniar” (to provide inspired or creative solutions), also related etymologically in Spanish with “ingeniero” (engineer). INGENIA students live through the complete development process of complex products or systems liked to the different engineering majors at ETSII-TU Madrid. All subjects within the INGENIA initiative have an analogous structure and aim at the promotion similar professional outcomes, linked to the ability to design, implement and operate engineering systems, also focusing on teamwork and communication skills, and trying to systematically promote student creativity and their interest in social and ethical aspects of engineering for a sustainable World.

In this study we present the complete development of the INGENIA initiative, the main results from the first implementation from 2014-2015 academic course and the principal challenges and difficulties faced, when trying to systematically promote CDIO and to encourage a shift from traditional teaching-learning methodologies to student centered approaches. Present analysis is carried out focusing on the main drivers of change: students, teachers, environment and resources, taking into account the opinions from the Managing Board at ETSII-TU Madrid, which have been systematically gathered by means of comprehensive surveys and personal interviews. Key aspects, including: student motivation, coordination between teachers and subjects, supervision of the projects under a tight schedule, promotion of topics for all industrial engineering areas, rapid prototyping resources for reaching the implementation and operation stages, among others, are discussed and the more relevant lessons learned and proposals for improvement are put forward. We also provide an analysis about the impacts of such proposals for improvement on the second implementation from 2015-2016 academic course in which the INGENIA initiative is performing with even better results and involving more than 250 students, almost doubling the numbers from the first implementation.

To our knowledge, the INGENIA initiative constitutes the first integral application of the CDIO methodology to the field of Industrial Engineering in our country.

Proceedings of the 12th International CDIO Conference, Turku, Finland, June 12-16 2016