Category Archives: Curriculum development

A colloquium to influence the global state of engineering education

Late April 2019 an illustrious cohort of 76 creative, passionate, and engaged educators, thought leaders, educational entrepreneurs, directors, administrators, students and change makers from 16 institutions from around the world gathered at MIT and Olin College. Their purpose was to … Continue reading

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How the pilot of the Joint Interdisciplinary Master Project fell into place

In my June 2018 blog about the Joint Interdisciplinary Project I presented the background and first steps in the development of a 10-week full-time interdisciplinary project for second-year Master students at TU Delft, under the auspices of the 4TU.Centre for … Continue reading

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Six driving forces that will fuel change in TU Delft education 2018-2024

What kind of university TU Delft strives to be? What changes does TU Delft foresee in its engineering education for the next six years? In January 2018 TU Delft published its updated TU Delft Vision on Education 2018-2024 and Strategic … Continue reading

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Hands-on learning the new mantra for engineering education at TU Eindhoven

February 1st, the day after the second National Interdisciplinary Education Conference (NIEC 2018), the Eindhoven team of the 4TU.Centre for Engineering Education organised the Education Innovation Day at TU Eindhoven (TU/e). I got the invitation to run two workshops on … Continue reading

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What are the successful professional roles of the future in engineering?

In my August 2017 post about professional profiles and engineering role models I discussed the difficulty of their incorporation, as well as the development of a good representative image of engineering practice in our curricula. The real world is even … Continue reading

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Russia’s catching up on active forms of engineering education

As the Co-director of the CDIO Initiative I was invited for a Russian national conference 25-26 October at a place that was not directly on my mind: Surgut, city in northwest Siberia on the Ob River, about 400,000 inhabitants and … Continue reading

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Do professional role models or profiles enable students to jump head-first into the world of work, get the job they really want, and achieve results?

Why do so many students begin an academic study in engineering? Often it is the promising good employability! Is n’t it surprising then that many students in academic engineering studies start thinking about their future career at a late stage … Continue reading

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Toekomst van hoger technisch onderwijs in de maritieme sector

Stilstaan gevaarlijker dan meebewegen met onzekere verandering Vinden afgestudeerden met een academische opleiding in de maritieme techniek over tien tot vijftien jaar nog steeds gemakkelijk een baan? Of zijn de kennis en vaardigheden die worden aangeleerd in hedendaagse curricula tegen … Continue reading

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A workshop about worldwide innovations in engineering education. Be inspired or confused.

What if 86% of the employers in your country would say they have difficulty in recruiting people with the right skills? You think it is unrealistic? It is not. A recent study (2016-2017) about talent shortage  by ManpowerGroup shows that … Continue reading

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Different ways to include Global Engineering Preparedness and Entrepreneurial Mindset Learning in engineering programmes

In my role of the TU Delft academic liaison for the Global E3 university network I attended the Global E3 Annual Meeting in Bethlehem (US) 22-26 May. This city is home to Bethlehem Steel, famous for its historic huge steel … Continue reading

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Why entrepreneurial behaviour is a must for all young engineers

At some point in their careers, most, if not all engineers, will move to positions of technical or engineering leadership. That ranges from becoming a leader of a project team to a  leader of an entire technical enterprise. Or simply taking responsibility … Continue reading

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Interdisciplinary education: a wave of the future?

Also at my university, though rigidly organised in disciplinary silos and producing disciplinary programmes, I hear the buzzwords “multidisciplinarity” and “interdisciplinarity” almost every day. Obviously there is a shift of interest towards exploring questions and solving problems that cross borders … Continue reading

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Educating engineers for a resource constrained future: do we understand what we are doing?

Has it ever been different? “Engineering Opportunities in a Resource Constrained Future”. When I read this theme of the CDIO European Regional Meeting at Trinity College Dublin on 12-13 January 2017 the very first time, I wondered: “Has it ever … Continue reading

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Vision on TU Delft Aerospace Engineering Education 2020

A new Long-term Vision Mid November 2016, my faculty of Aerospace Engineering published its long-term vision in the form of the online magazine “Long-term Vision of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering TU Delft 2016 – 2020: ‘It’s all about connections“. … Continue reading

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An innovative educational framework that lies on your doorstep

Most curriculum innovations fail As a board member of the Educational Leadership Course that is organised under the sponsorship of Erasmus University, TU Delft and University Leiden (LDE), I reviewed the application files of the 17 candidates for the course … Continue reading

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