ABSTRACT
The CDIO approach meets the challenge of increasing the quality of engineering education by providing a learning environment in which students understand how to Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) complex technological products [1]. Accordingly, CDIO functions as a lifecycle model of these products where design-implement remain as their key stages and usually involve an iterative loop to meet certain constraints and criteria [2]. Meaningful design-implement experiences must carry out a kind of “Reflection-in-Action” [3] implying practical hands-on activities that generate real-world verifiable results [1].
This paper describes how such iterative design-implement experiences were driven in the fourth-year Advanced Project in Science and Telecommunications Technology (12 ECTS credits) of the Degree in Sciences and Telecommunication Technologies taught at the Escola Tècnica Superior d'Enginyeria de Telecomunicació de Barcelona (Telecom BCN). As the basis for engineering-based active and experiential learning in the context of a design-implement project, students were faced with a process of refining the design and writing of a novel and pioneering software tool based on computer vision and machine learning [4] for aiding the neuromuscular re-education of hospital patients with facial paralysis [5] using a mirror therapy. This work was done in the cooperative research framework recently established by Telecom BCN, Bellvitge University Hospital and Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL) [6] and looks upon some previously neglected issues such as the steps involved in product certification (medical software certification in this particular project) or the product usability tested in the intended target user.
KEYWORDS
Design-Implement Project, Telecommunication Engineering, Standards: 5, 11
REFERENCES
[1] Crawley, E. F., Malmqvist, J., Östlund, S., Brodeur, D. R., Edström, K. (2014). Rethinking Engineering Education: The CDIO approach, 2nd Edition. Springer: New York. [2] Cross, N. (2008). Engineering Design Methods: Strategies for Product Design, 4th Edition. Wiley: New York. [3] Schön, D. A. (1984). The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. Basic Books: New York. [4] Prince, S. (2012). Computer Vision: Models, Learning, and Inference. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. [5] VanSwearingen, J. (2008). “Facial rehabilitation: a neuromuscular reeducation, patient-centered approach.” Facial Plast Surg.24(2):250-9. doi: 10.1055/s-2008-1075841. [6] Domingo, T., Ballarin, M., Rojano, J. M., Oliveras, A., García-Hernández, M., Bragós, R. (2015). “Cooperation Framework with a Hospital as a Design-Build Projects Source”, in Proceedings of the 11th International CDIO Conference, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Chengdu, Sichuan, P.R. China, June 8-11.
Proceedings of the 12th International CDIO Conference, Turku, Finland, June 12-16 2016