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Among the cornerstones of engineering education – CDIO

Steel sculpture on Reykjavik’s waterfront called The Sun voyager
‘Solfar’ or ‘Sun Voyager.’ The artist Jon Gunnar Arnason created the striking landmark.
Published Jun 21, 2022

KTH (Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan) faculty and representatives from The Department of Learning in Engineering Sciences visited the Reykjavik University in Iceland for the 18th CDIO International Conference. The main theme of the 18th International Conference was “Surviving and Thriving” and 247 participants attended the 4 intensive days.

CDIO Standards 

Kristina Edström  Associate Professor in Engineering Education Development and Anders Rosén  Associate Professor in engineering education were part of the international team who presented the new CDIO Standards 3.0  after a review process of several years. 

The CDIO standards are a set of principles (or best practices) underlying the implementation of CDIO in an engineering program. In addition to defining the distinctive features of a CDIO program, they also serve as guidelines for educational reform, allow benchmarking against other programs, and support continuous improvement through self-evaluation.

CDIO Council news

Kristina Edström is now again part of the CDIO Council, as a member-at-large. The voting took place during the conference and the result was presented on Wednesday. 

The CDIO Initiative is supervised by the CDIO Council formed by the regional leaders, 6 Members-at-Large and 2 Co-directors. All elections are arranged at the Annual International CDIO Conference, and the participating schools have one vote each. More on the CDIO organization

Future Education 

Joakim Lilliesköld  Associate Professor in Industrial Systems Engineering & Professor Leif Kari , Vice president for Education attended the conference, both working on the strategies for Future education at KTH.

“CDIO is a particularly good conference when developing education and one of the cornerstones in engineering education at KTH. We have been there several times before, but this year it was extra relevant due to our work on the future of education.” says Joakim Lilliesköld
"A lot of things from CDIO are relevant and will be very influential in our next steps. CDIO's principles closely align with ours. Moreover, CDIO's progression thinking is also relevant when it comes to solving real problems, like sustainability. We hope that more schools and programs will benchmark CDIO when developing their programs, regardless of whether they are old or new". 

Final words from Kristina Edström "CDIO conferences are always warm and welcoming, but this time was something special as we really felt the joy of meeting in person again. The number of participants was as high as ever, the overall quality of contributions was unusually high, and participation in workshops enthusiastic". 

An overview of our contributions to the conference

Workshops

  • CDIO introductory workshop
    Kristina Edström and Anders Rosén had an introductory workshop giving an overview of the CDIO approach and exploring the new standard in integrating sustainable development in engineering programs. 

  • Integrate Language Learning and Intercultural Communication into Engineering Curricula
    Ida Pinho, Nathalie Kirchmeyer and Yoko Takau-Drobin  

  • How can STEM Teachers Promote Effective Communication Skills Among Students?
    Jamie Rinder and Charlotte Hurdelbrink 

Podium presentation 

  • The CDIO Syllabus 3.0 - An Updated Statement of Goals
    Johan Malmqvist, Ulrika Lundqvist, Anders Rosen, Kristina Edström, Rajnish Gupta, Helene Leong, Sin Moh Cheah, Jens Bennedsen, Ron Hugo, Aldert Kamp, Ola Leifler, Svante Gunnarsson, Janne Roslöf and Daniel Spooner  

Roundtable 

  • Positioning Curriculum Agility in the CDIO Framework
    Suzanne Brink, Carl Johan Carlsson, Mikael Enelund, Elizabeth Keller, Reidar Lyng and Charlie McCartan

  • Harnessing Co-Creation to Upgrade Mathematics Faculty Teaching Competence
    Ernest Ampadu and Elizabeth Keller  

Working group 

  • Co-creating the Self-Assessment Rubric of the Curriculum Agility Principles
    Suzanne Brink, Carl Johan Carlsson, Elizabeth Keller, Charlie McCartan, Reidar Lyng and Mikael Enelund 

Paper presentations 

  • Integrating Gender Equality, Diversity and Equal Conditions in Engineering Education
    Marie Magnell, Charlotta Delin, Anders Rosén, Anna Jerbrant, Gunnar Tibert, and Carlos  

  • Enhancing Interaction with External Stakeholders in Program Management
    Svante Gunnarsson, Anna Fahlgren and Per Fagrell  

Projects in progress 

  • Principles for Educational Change Management in Higher Education
    Magnus Andersson  

Text: Madeleine Tucker Smith