CDIO: An International Initiative for Reforming Engineering Education

With support from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Linköping University and Chalmers University of Technology of Sweden, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of the USA, launched the CDIO Initiative to improve undergraduate engineering education in their countries and, eventually, worldwide. The Initiative is an open-architecture endeavour that is designed to be adaptable and adoptable by any undergraduate engineering programme. In 2002, the Technical University of Denmark joined the Initiative and, in 2003, other schools in Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the USA were aligning themselves as well. CDIO is a closely coordinated programme with parallel efforts at participating schools. The Initiative’s vision is to provide students with an education that stresses engineering fundamentals that are set in the context of Conceiving - Designing - Implementing - Operating (CDIO) real-world systems and products. The article describes the Initiative’s launch, progress and impact.

This paper was published in World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, Vol. 2 No. 1 (2003). Available here courtesy of the UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education and the UNESCO publication World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education.