Background
A major international project to reform undergraduate engineering education was launched in October 2000. This project, called The CDIO Initiative, has expanded to include engineering programs worldwide. The vision of the project is to provide students with an education that stresses engineering fundamentals set in the context of Conceiving--Designing--Implementing--Operating real-world systems, processes, and products.
The CDIO Initiative has three overall goals – to educate students who are able to:
1. Master a deep working knowledge of technical fundamentals 2. Lead in the creation and operation of new products and systems 3. Understand the importance and strategic impact of research and technological development on society
The CDIO Initiative creates a range of resources that can be adapted and implemented by individual programs to meet these goals. These resources support a curriculum organized around mutually supporting disciplines, interwoven with learning experiences related to personal and interpersonal skills, and product, process, and system building skills. Students receive an education rich in design-implement experiences and active and experiential learning, set in both the classroom and modern learning workspaces. One of these resources, the CDIO Standards, is provided in this document. For more information about the CDIO Initiative, visit http://www.cdio.org
The CDIO Standards
In January 2004, the CDIO Initiative adopted 12 standards to describe CDIO programs. These guiding principles were developed in response to program leaders, alumni, and industrial partners who wanted to know how they would recognize CDIO programs and their graduates. As a result, these CDIO Standards define the distinguishing features of a CDIO program, serve as guidelines for educational program reform and evaluation, create benchmarks and goals with worldwide application, and provide a framework for continuous improvement. The standards may also be used as a framework for certification purposes.
The 12 CDIO Standards address program philosophy (Standard 1), curriculum development (Standards 2, 3 and 4), design-implement experiences and workspaces (Standards 5 and 6), methods of teaching and learning (Standards 7 and 8), faculty development (Standards 9 and 10), and assessment and evaluation (Standards 11 and 12).
Each standard is presented here with a description, a rationale, and a rubric.