Flemming Kobberøe Fink

Integration of engineering practice into curriculum-25 years of experience with problem based learning

In 1974, Aalborg University (Denmark) introduced the project organised problem based learning concept. The experience since then has proven this to be an important innovation in higher education. This presentation focuses on the experiences from implementing this pedagogical concept in engineering education. The main part of the curriculum is engineering project work, which is discussed, including results from a recent evaluation of electrical and electronic engineering in Denmark. An international board evaluated all Danish engineering programs within Electronic and Electrical Engineering (five schools and two universities) and published their report in June 1998. This evaluation shows in very clear terms the superiority of project organised problem based learning compared to more traditional learning strategies.

Integration of work based learning in engineering education

Developing a new engineering educational set-up, which integrates formal education and productive work is a new challenge. The best way to learn and understand a theory is trying to see whether you can apply the theory in engineering problem solving. Therefore it is obvious to try to combine the academic learning process and engineering problem solving. This has been one of the fundamental reasons for the existing problem based learning concept (PBL). In the light of the experiences from this PBL concept some further development makes it possible to integrate work based learning in academic engineering education. This presentation gives some examples on how this is being implemented now and discusses further improvements by combining engineering education, continuing professional development and productive engineering.

Modelling the context of continuing professional development

Engineering competence is a major competitive parameter in knowledge society, especially in the industry subject to very fast innovation processes. Being one step ahead of the competitors with incorporation of new knowledge in the products puts focus on the importance of human resources as a significant resource for industrial development. Continuing professional development of engineering staff is therefore very important. Based on research carried out as a Leonardo Pilot project supported by the European Union, a model for the continuing education process is described. The elements of the model and their interaction are discussed. It is important to achieve a joint understanding of engineering professional development and to acknowledge that it is not the university education once more. Part of the modelling is based on interviews with development engineers from the very dynamic mobile communication industry.

Global network and global centre for problem based learning

New skills are required of engineering graduates to meet the needs from industry and society - team working, communication, project management, cross-cultural skills etc. in addition to engineering professional skills. These requirements are met implicitly via the problem based learning concept. Aalborg University has proven to hold a strong position in problem-based learning (PBL) and, an increasing number of universities and engineering schools worldwide are seeking consultancy and co-operation with Aalborg University. On that background the Global UICEE Centre for problem-based learning (UCPBL) is established. This paper describes the UCPBL profile and plan of action. The activities include consultancy for university organisations that are changing from a traditional educational concept to PBL concept, staff development on organisational level, educational level and pedagogical level, a PBL master programme and short courses. We are involved in (re)-organising universities in developing countries and focus on capacity building. Continuing professional development is also a natural task of the centre as one of more aspects of university-industry cooperation. In the paper and presentation we also mention the global aspect of our work and the establishment of the global network on problem based learning and how to be involved in this.

Hearing aids for profoundly deaf people based on a new parametric concept

People with severe hearing loss only have a minor part of the frequency range available for reception of information in speech signals. These people do not benefit from normal hearing aids as the information in high frequency parts of the speech is not available. To overcome this problem the authors have developed a new method enabling to present information from the frequency range of interest in the frequency range available for the hearing disabled. By means of parametric modeling of the speech production system, transforming the speech production model to match the available frequency range, and then finally resynthesize the speech using this transformed model, one can present the speech information of interest in a frequency range at choice. This concept is believed to reduce wideband background noise which is a problem for hearing disabled as well as for people with normal hearing ability.<<ETX>>

From on-campus project organised problem based learning to facilitated work based learning in industry

The pedagogical concept of Project Organised Problem Based Learning (POPBL) has been implemented since 1974 at Aalborg University. With take-off in the experiences from this concept we have developed methodologies to integrate productive engineering and engineering education. We all know that the best way to learn and understand a theory is trying to see whether you can apply the theory. Engineering is problem solving – by applying results from engineering research. Therefore it is obvious to try to combine the fundamental learning process and engineering problem solving. Recently we have developed a methodology for continuing education integrated into the daily tasks called Facilitated Work Based Learning (FWBL) – mainly based on the same way of thinking. POPBL and FWBL as well as the link between these to methodologies will be presented in this paper.