This paper reports/discusses experiences from a new design-build project course “Integrated design and manufacturing” which is held during the fall semester of the second year of the Master of Science program in mechanical engineering at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. The course was given for the first time in 2006 within CDIO engineering education context.
In the course, the students are trained to solve open engineering problems that have a wide solution space. The project assignments are generated and defined by companies within the industry and are therefore relevant problems associated with existing products. Through a value management focus the students have to enhance the customer value of a product. The result can be a redesigned product or a completely new one.
Throughout this process, group dynamics are trained in a natural way since the students are assigned different roles, which are changed after a rotating scheme. Each student will, for example, experience the project-manager role which includes chairing meetings, managing decisions, and contacts with supervisors, etc. Within the scope of the course communication is also trained. After the conceptual design phase the chosen concept is presented to a fictive project steering group. The final product is again presented at the end of the project and a technical report is written.
Proceedings of the 3rd International CDIO Conference, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts, June 11-14, 2007