The CDIO syllabus: a comparative study of expected student proficiency

Abstract

Engineering students must graduate with command of a vast body of technical knowledge. They must possess personal, interpersonal and system-building skills to function in teams, and be prepared to produce products and systems. Their education must have been structured under a curriculum blending ability to combine technical expertise with ethical, innovative, philosophical and humanistic acumen. This paper describes a unique international collaboration among four universities to reform engineering education. The collaborators agreed to a statement of goals, which includes descriptions of knowledge, skills and attitudes vital to an effective education, and codifies proficiency levels expected of graduates. We developed and utilized unique stakeholder surveys both to validate our prototype and to determine desired proficiency levels. This collaboration resulted in The CDIO Syllabus, A Statement of Goals for Undergraduate Engineering Education. The syllabus is both a template and a process that can be used to customize the syllabus to others' programmes. It can define new educational initiatives/and be employed as the basis for rigorous assessment. This paper details how, with the input of industry, academia and others, we employed an engineering problem-solving paradigm to effect our redesign. It outlines the syllabus and the unique process employed to create it.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge Mr Daniel Ahlman (KTH), Lt. Col. John E. Keesee and graduate students Raffi Babikian and Marshal Brenheizer (MIT) for valuable assistance in conducting the survey. They also gratefully acknowledge Mr William T. G. Litant (MIT) for editing the manuscript and for his efficient handling of editorial issues generated by a group of authors from four universities in two countries.