This paper describes a new graduate level educational initiative based on the modified CDIO syllabus proposed by Crawley et al [1] at the 2013 CDIO Annual Conference. The McGill Institute for Aerospace Engineering (MIAE) in collaboration with the Consortium for Research and Innovation in Aerospace in Québec (CRIAQ) and 4 other universities (Polytechnique Montréal, Concordia University, École de Technologie Supérieure and Université Laval) has designed the CREATE training program oriented specifically to improve the professional skills of graduate students for the aerospace industry. CRIAQ is a non-profit organization, which finances industry-driven collaborative research projects where training through research is always present. The motivation of CRIAQ to participate in this program came from industrial focus groups that indicated that some aerospace industries are reluctant to hire graduate students with their current competencies.
In order to define the specific list of CREATE training program objectives, a survey was designed by CRIAQ and sent to major aerospace industries. The survey asked industry stakeholders to indicate the desired qualities of a newly graduated Master, PhD and Post-doctoral student in four categories identified in the proposed graduate level CDIO syllabus [1]: Disciplinary knowledge and reasoning; Personal attributes (thinking, beliefs, and values); Relating to others (communication and collaboration); and Leading the innovation process. The survey also asked industry stakeholders to indicate their perception of the current qualities of newly graduated PhD students.
The survey indicated significant gaps between current Ph.D. and industry-desired Ph.D. attributes for certain professional skills. The proposed training program is designed to bridge these gaps and to improve graduate students skills to reach desired Industry Readiness Levels called IRLs. These IRLs are represented by related profiles of the modified CDIO competencies.
The uniqueness of the proposed CREATE training program lies in the close collaborative training and teaching between academia and industry partners within the program. All the workshops, seminars and short courses are designed to train and prepare students to reach the desired industry readiness level after graduation. The performance of this training program will be continuously assessed by feedback from the industrial partners, industrial mentors, research supervisors and trained students. An Assessment Committee will make recommendations for changes.
The main objectives of this CREATE training program are the following: • Further customize the CDIO concept to define a 3C (CREATE/CRIAQ/CDIO) methodology; • Sensitize the professoriate to the needs of the aerospace industry regarding the attributes of graduate students and sensitize industry to the value added by hiring graduate students with advanced degrees with proper professional skills; • Educate 90 graduated trainees over the next 6 years.
[1] Edward F. Crawley, Kristina Edström and Tanya Stanko, Educating Engineers for Research Based Innovation – Creating the Learning Outcomes Framework, Proceedings of the 9th International CDIO Conference, MIT–Harvard, June 2013
Proceedings of the 10th International CDIO Conference, Barcelona, Spain, June 15-19 2014