Learning activities for wicked problems and goal conflicts between industry and society
The project involves developing CDIO-based cross-programme learning activities that strengthen students' holistic understanding of complex problems and goal conflicts within energy, manufacturing, and the environment, and develop their skills for collaboration with experts across subject boundaries.
Project context
Students today must learn to deal with complex and wicked problems. This means developing together the ability to identify complex problems and goal conflicts and discuss possible strategies and solutions. A holistic understanding of the complexity of problems and goal conflicts between industry and society is needed. Students must also be given the opportunity to apply tools in their respective subjects and to learn to collaborate with experts across subject boundaries, which is required in system development. The latter is not always easy to achieve within the same education.
Today, ITM offers two Master of Science in Engineering programmes, that focus on sustainability, but at different system levels and with different perspectives. In Energy and Environment (CENMI), energy and the environment are from a societal perspective, but industry in this context is only briefly addressed. In Industrial Technology and Sustainability (CITEH), sustainable production is the main focus, and in this context, energy supply is of fundamental importance; therefore it is desirable to strengthen the energy and environmental perspectives in the programme. Electricity production also has many similarities with other businesses, with a focus on sustainable production of services and products.
CENMI and CITEH are both linked to two Master’s programmes in production: Sustainable Production Development (TITHM) and Production Engineering and Management (TPRMM). A challenge associated with Master’s programmes that include international students is aligning their prior knowledge with that of Bachelor’s students from CENMI and CITEH. Consequently, the connection to TITHM and TPRMM needs to be managed in a way that enables fourth-year students to participate in learning activities designed for second-year students. This could also create an opportunity for students who participated during their second year to pursue advanced studies in their fourth year.
A strengthened connection between these programmes can create an engaged teaching team that can collaborate across program boundaries. Then, cross-programme learning activities and a common learning environment need to be developed enabling students from all programmes to meet and benefit from each other's subject expertise.
Purpose (outcome)
The overall aim of the project is to contribute to students' holistic understanding of the complexity of problems and goal conflicts between industry and society. Specifically, this is done by developing cross-programme learning activities and a common learning environment with clear connections between the programmes CENMI and CITEH as well as TITHM and TPRMM.
The project also aims to:
- Create and evaluate a proven way for educators to collaborate across program boundaries by having PA* teams and teaching teams create experiences that can be conceptualized
- Give the student groups within CENMI, CITEH, TITHM and TPRMM a larger context together at KTH. These programs are relatively small but have a desirable relatively high heterogeneity with respect to gender and background (academic and geographical) so in accordance with BRBD there may be a need to strengthen this group.
The impact goals are:
- Increased student completion through an engaging cross-programme course that clarifies the issues that future tasks may address.
- Saved time for teachers through a proven working method in collaboration to prevent overlap in course development – compared to individual course development in silos
- Better learning environment, student health and satisfaction, through an engaging study environment
- More applicants for mapped masters that today have very few participants from CITEH and CENMI such as TITHM and TPRMM.
*Programme Director
Project results (output)
The project will deliver the following concrete results:
- A syllabus for a cross-programme cing course (new, or updated existing course) for future joint studies CENMI/CITEH year 2.
- A syllabus for a cross-programme Master's course* (new, or updated existing course) for joint study TITHM/TPRMM semester 2.
- A digital makerspace for the students' project work on complex problems with goal conflicts (based on current lab environments) – an environment for creative collaboration in project groups where students are mixed across programme boundaries – problem formulation/system analysis, idea creation, prototypedesign and testing, evaluation.
- A generalisable concept for co-reading courses across programmes for learning about intractable problems.
- Final report with packaged lessons learned for dissemination.
* For progression, a Master's course is also created with in-depth content on the industry's complex problems (also here, cross-programme with the opportunity for students to collaborate with different subject matter experts).
Time plan
Start date: 2026-03-23
End date: 2026-12-31
Project documentation
If you have a KTH ID, you can read the documents when logged in:
- Poster: Poster_FrU26vt_2622-ITM_Industrins Komplexa.pdf
- Project directive (Swedish): Projektdirektiv_FrU26_2622-ITM_KomplIndSamProblem.pdf