The 2017 CDIO Asian Regional Meeting being hosted by Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi in cooperation with the Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University dated March 13-15, 2017. The meeting aimed to provide opportunities for administrators and educators coming from different universities in Asia to share and discuss education reforms and innovation.
Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi (RMUTT) maintaining its original focus on quality teaching of science and technology which aims for high recognition from industries and organizations for its qualified graduates who are well-equipped with ethics, professional knowledge, practical skills, and far-sighted vision for sustainable development of the world society as well as professional development.
Presently, Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi has 11 Faculties and one College responsible for offering three levels of educational programs in various disciplines: Four-Year Bachelors’ Degree, Masters’ Degree, and Doctorate Degrees.
Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi recognizes the vital role of education in shaping the future of country’s development. Designing a curriculum is a multifaceted challenge that includes questions about learning goals, such as which competencies are important for professional practice.
Currently, Thailand has two CDIO initiative member institutions pioneered by RMUTT and the Faculty of Engineering of Chulalongkorn University. The two institutions joined the CDIO initiatives since 2014 and 2015 respectively. Both universities have implemented CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) Teaching and Learning Framework in their Engineering programs. In 2015, the CDIO-based Education framework reached to the non-engineering disciplines of RMUTT as well as to other Thai Universities.
The 2017 CDIO Asian Regional Meeting is open to educators coming from different fields attended by 278 participants coming from 13 countries.
On March 12, 2017 the venue of the registration was at Mandarin Hotel in Bangkok and in the evening there was a welcome reception in the same hotel.
On March 13, 2017 in the morning, Dr. Suphat Champathong, the Secretary General of the Office of Higher Education Commission, Ministry of Education of Thailand delivered his welcome and opening address.
The Keynote Speaker was Professor Dr. Johan Malmqvist, Dean of Education, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. He is also one of the leaders and co-founders of CDIO Worldwide Initiatives. He delivered a topic “Introduction to the CDIO approach to engineering education-motives, implementation and effects on educational quality”. His research addresses the product development methodologies and IT support for product development. His current research focuses on the methods and tool for product data analytics, for product configuration and personalized medicine. His talk examined the impact of CDIO implementation on educational quality. In particular, it has shown how the CDIO standards and tools can support quality improvement and assurance aiming at obtaining international and national accreditation.
Dr. Sampan Silapanad, Vice President and General Manager of Hard Disk Drive Operations in Thailand of Western Digital Corporation one of the Invited Speakers delivered a topic “What the Industry Expect from the University Graduates – Future Trend”. He discussed the today’s era that technology move so fast, industry is the first sector that adopt technology into implementing reality. He added that the new graduates when it comes to the hard skills, they must deeply understand the basic fundamental in all areas because most of the new technology are applied from many fields together. In term of soft skills, they must be able to understand the picture, critical thinking, decision-making, flexibility, open for any changes, life-time learning and can adapt to the new things easily.
Another Invited Speaker from South Korea was Professor Dr. Song Dong Joo, a Senior Vice President for Accreditation Board for Engineering Education of Korea (ABEEK) at the same time a Director of Yeungnam University Hub Center for Engineering Education. He shared a topic “The Innovations in Engineering Education at Yeungnam University Hub Center for Engineering Education including Design Thinking Education”. Yeungnam University Hub Center for Engineering Education Innovation has been designated by Korean Government and supported since 2012. There are 18 participating countries for the Yeungnam University Hub Center. He shared that his university have tried many new ideas to innovate engineering education and transferred to participating universities.
Prof. Dr. Ron Hugo, Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning at the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Schulich School of Engineering, University of Calgary in Canada. The said Canadian Professor delivered his lecture as one of the Invited Speakers on a topic “Engineering Education in the Digital Age with an Invitation to the 2017 International CDIO Conference”. In his talk, he argued that transformational change of industrial revolution has dramatically changed the mindset and habits of students in an unparalleled manner.
One of the Invited Speakers was Dr. Linda Lee a Principal Consultant of Singapore Polytechnic International. She lectured on Sharing CDIO Experiences “CDIO, What’s Next? Singapore Polytechnic has been working with Asia partner universities in implementing CDIO programs since 2011. At the end of the programme, they were able to redesign their existing curriculum in accordance to CDIO skillsets and interpret the CDIO standards for their local context. Her talk discusses the next phase of CDIO implementation and centers on enhancing the curricula with the aim of educating students to become effective and productive professionals in conceiving, designing and implementing innovative ideas and solutions.
“CDIO Thailand-The Way Forward” was the topic of the duo: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Natha Kuptasthien, Assistant to the President for International Relations at the same time she is also a Director of International Strategy Division of Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi and her partner was Assoc. Prof. Dr. Angkee Sripakagorn from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University. They shared the history of the two institutions how they have formed the “CDIO Thailand” as partnership in collaboration to promote the CDIO implementation in Thailand and their international partners. RMUTT is now playing as the key coordinator in expanding the CDIO framework to other 8 RMUTs nationwide.
Another duo from Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Kanazawa Technical College presented their topics “An Introduction to Engineering Education on the KIT/KTC Campus with an Invitation to the 2018 International CDIO Conference”. Prof. Dr. Masaaki Shikada, Dean of Major Basic Education and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Kanazawa his partner was Asst. Prof. Robert W. Songer of Global Information Technology from Kanazawa Technical College. They mentioned a new curriculum reform and the campus will create a program that includes a 2-year residential system with English as medium of instruction and mandatory 1-year overseas study aiming to foster leadership values and international perspective. The final talk concluded with the invitation for the 14th International CDIO Conference in Kanazawa, Japan in 2018.
For the “Tutorial Session” Ms. Helene Leong, Director, Department of Educational Development , Singapore Polytechnic, and also a Co-Chair of CDIO Asian Region gave her lecture on the topic “ Introduction to CDIO: A framework for Engineering Education. In her talk participants learned about CDIO strategy to address challenges.
On March 14, 2017 held at the Faculty of Engineering Conference Hall at Chulalongkorn University, the program was opened by Prof. Dr. Bundit Eua-arporn, President of Chulalongkorn University.
Another Keynote Speaker in the person of Mr. Lim Peng Hun, Deputy Principal of Singapore Polytechnic delivered his lecture on the topic “Industry Transformation: Challenges and Opportunities for Engineering Education”. The presenter shared how the integration of Design Thinking and, in particular, Fab Lab skills and activities with CDIO could develop and deepen the technical and innovative skill sets of engineering students.
Mr. Kan Trakulhoon, Director and Chairman of Managing Advisory Committee of Siam Cement Public Company Limited delivered his talk as one of the Invited Speaker a topic on “Next Generation of Engineers and the Creation of Innovative Organization”. He said, educations are “timeless”. He taught in the past for 10 years and he learned as well from his students. He mentioned that, it is necessary to be well-informed and gain new knowledge.
Prof. Dr. Xi Wu another Invited Speaker from the Department of Electronics Engineering, Chengdu University of Information Technology gave a special talks on “The Implementation of CDIO in Chengdu University of Information Technology: A Systematic View from University”. Chengdu University of Information Technology has implemented CDIO for the whole university in all 53 disciplines for nearly 10 years. The presenter described why and how the university decided to implement CDIO 10 years ago.
Another Invited Speaker from India particularly from Veltech Dr. RR and Dr. SR University was Mrs. Rangarajan Mahalakshmi Kishore. She is currently the Chairperson Managing Trustee of Veltech Dr. RR and Dr. SR University. Her topic was “Enhancing Faculty Teaching Competency through Peer Interactions”. She shared that Veltech founded a new faculty learning forum “Teaching Developers Initiative (TDI) wherein a select faculty group meets every Friday to explore and interact their innovative teaching methods attempted and practiced in their classrooms.
Associate Prof. Dr. Atiwong Suchato, Vice Dean, Faculty of Engineering, Chulalongkorn University gave his talk on the topic “Driving Modern Day Education with myCourseVille”. In his talk, he introduced a home-grown Learning Management System (LMS) called “myCourseVille” which was originally developed as an endeavor to connect learners’ learning activities to their social network lifestyle.
The last but not the least was from Vietnam. Dr. Tan N. Tran is the Director of the Quality Assurance Center of Duy Tan University. The topic was “Automatic Assessment of Students’ Performance and Accreditation Requirements.
The highlight of the event also included campus tours. At RMUTT, there were two routes: (1) Faculty of Engineering and (2) Faculty of Mass Communication Technology with hand cream making and Thai massage experience by Thai Traditional Medicine College. At Chulalongkorn University, the participants visited iDesign workspace, iScale active classroom and iLibrary.
In closing, the 2017 CDIO Asian Regional Meeting was a success for bringing the administrators and educators from different countries in Asia. Through this event, the engagement, by way of open and constructive dialogues about worldwide CDIO initiatives and new trends of education curriculum have attracted the interest of non-CDIO members applying to be member of CDIO worldwide initiatives.
Thank you from the 2017 Asian Regional Meeting in Thailand.