Innovative engineering project from engineering design to implementation-base on CDIO model

In the past, the higher education in Taiwan aimed to create elites in the field of engineering. However, the conventional subjects and curriculum taught were mainly focusing on the introduction and understanding of theories. So students who only accept professional theories, the technology developed is not necessarily the needs of the industry, hence affecting the competitiveness of the country. The importance of “Creative Education” was mentioned in many research papers around the world when discussing how to enhance national competitiveness. Feng Chia University is devoted to promote “The Project of Innovative Engineering”. By borrowing the experience of innovative education from Purdue University and combining it with the CDIO model, Feng Chia University created a systematic process for the project of innovative engineering. This allows students to discover and define problems, analyze and simulate actual situations, conceive and invent products, and in the end, achieve product evaluation and innovation development.

This paper introduces the procedure of how Feng Chia University integrated the CDIO framework into innovative education, and how, they through curriculum development, encourages students to engage in active learning and gather learning experiences rather than passive note-taking. The results of the current two semesters have shown that by transforming industrial design into a project of innovative engineering really does enhance students’ motivation for active learning. The learning goal and process created based on Bloom’s taxonomy is set to start with “creativity”. Under this guideline, students are willing to learn the contents related to “analysis”, “assessment” and “application” more actively, leading to an outcome of the enhanced ability to “memorize” and “comprehend”. Moreover, by using the CDIO framework to create the project of innovative engineering, it allows teachers to overcome the time limitations which existed in the system before, and at the same time enhances the depth of learning for the students significantly.