P10: Including industry 4.0 and sustainability in engineering education: results from a survey
Background and purpose
The fourth industrial revolution, so-called Industry 4.0 (I4.0), is emerging by bringing technological advancements that are radically changing the manufacturing industry. One important aspect of this revolution is that technological advancement is not only seen as a means to achieve higher efficiency. The UN 2030 agenda for Sustainable Development sets a goal that promotes sustainable industrialization and fosters innovation, i.e., SDG 9. SDG 9 demands harmonizing technological development and the future of the environment and society. In view of this, technology is now seen as an enabler of a greener future.
I4.0 and sustainable development has challenged not only the manufacturing domain but also engineering education. There is a growing concern in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) on how to re- design the engineering curricula in order to embed the basic concepts of the I4.0 [1] and sustainability issues. The HEI must ensure that there are no gaps or mismatches between the skills required to work in the context of the sustainable fourth industrial transformation.
In view of the above, the MAESTRO (MAnufacturing Education for a suSTainable fourth industRial revolution) initiative was born. Experts from several engineering disciplines and seven European institutions from Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy, Portugal, and Poland, have been working together to define and deliver a set of key competencies that are required by the future engineers who will be part of the I4.0 revolution, focusing on SDGs [2], [3]. Such competencies are embedded in existing courses in the form of didactic modules designed according to the Constructive Alignment (CA) approach proposed by Biggs [4]. The CA is an outcome-based course design approach that incentivizes a constructivist learning process [5] and realizes the alignment among Intended Learning Outcomes, Teaching and Learning Activities, and Assessment Tasks with “action” verbs [4].
This paper shows results from a survey that aims to assess and quantify if the newly designed didactic modules fully communicate the impact of I4.0 technologies on sustainability. The survey was conducted in the different European HEI participating in the MAESTRO project. The main hypothesis to be verified with the survey are a) the sensitivity of people from different countries to sustainability themes, b) the different degrees of confidence in the possibility of learning a sustainable use of technologies, c) the different perceptions of the proactive role of digital technologies in achieving sustainability goals.
Finished work/ongoing work
The main purpose of the survey was to assess the didactic modules designed to introduce specific applications of the I4.0 technologies and their impact on the SDGs. The modules were run through pilot courses at the Italian, Polish and Swedish institutions participating in the MAESTRO project. The survey was distributed to students after reaching a consensus among the consortium on the questions to be presented. The answers were collected after the courses ended. The survey collected 132 responses in total. The female respondents were 63 while the male respondents were 69.
The survey was inspired by [6] and designed in two parts: one compulsory (multiple-choice questions) and one voluntary (open questions). The compulsory section addresses three main aspects that reflect the hypothesis listed in the previous section: the evaluation of the I4.0 technology impact on engineering profiles at the different HEIs, the evaluation of sustainability awareness as well as the evaluation of course alignment with the overall university programs. A four-point Likert scale is used in the multiple- choice questions to get a clear stand from the respondents between agreement and disagreement. The voluntary section aims to collect students’ proposals and remarks for the improvement of the proposed didactic modules.
Results/observations/lessons learned
The students’ responses were analyzed by performing two different statistical tests. The first test assessed the internal consistency of the answers which resulted in being between good and excellent. The significance of each aspect reflected in the hypothesis was tested using Krusk Wallis one-way ANOVA by ranks. The result of the test highlights that the country effort on pursuing actions towards sustainability, university attention on considering sustainability in the education programs, additional knowledge on I4.0 technologies that complement the existing students’ knowledge base, and impact on the sustainability of I4.0 technologies are statistically significant aspects.
It can be observed that the country factor is strong showing consistent effort in pursuing practical steps toward sustainability. Learning a sustainable use of technology is considered effective only by the students of some countries, emphasizing a different degree of confidence in learning this aspect through university courses depending on the country.
Furthermore, the results show that all the analyzed I4.0 technologies (Additive Manufacturing, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, and Big Data & Analytics) have a similar influence on the SDGs, revealing a similar perception among the students on the sustainability impact of the technologies. I4.0 technologies mainly affect the SDGs related to health, industry, growth, production, and consumption (Figure 1), which is comparable to the experts’ opinion [2], [3].
Figure 1. A map of the analyzed I4.0 technologies (Additive Manufacturing, Augmented Reality, Internet of Things, and Big Data & analytics) on selected SDGs and the aspects country effort, university attention, and impact on sustainability.
Take-home message
I4.0 has rapidly evolved the required competencies of engineers to work in an I4.0 environment. High education institutions should take an active role in this industrial transformation focusing on the current and future educational needs of learners. From the results, the authors conclude that the didactic modules designed with the MAESTRO initiative successfully communicate the impact of I4.0 technologies on sustainability development. The students recognized the proactive role of digital technologies in achieving SDGs. The respondents from different institutions had a similar perspective on the sustainability impact of the I4.0 technologies. Learning a sustainable use of technology is considered effective only by the students of some countries.
The MAESTRO initiative provides a good starting point for boosting the improvement of engineering programs to be aligned with the current stakeholders’ expectations in terms of new required competencies.
References References
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