In the Spring of 2015, I traveled to Belgium to do a semester-long independent study in engineering education and to incorporate design thinking and collaboration into university engineering programs. I used qualitative research techniques to study the current state of the bachelors and postgraduate programs at two renowned universities in Belgium, KU Leuven and Thomas More. At my first classroom visit, the students gave a mid-year update on their project. Although they were supposed to have a component of user centered design, one of the students failed to even articulate who his users were! The professors were lost, arguing that they provided the students readings on the method. In this moment, I realized that since the professors themselves had never experienced the design process, they were not able to effectively teach it. In response, I ran workshops for the teaching team where they used the design process to develop their curriculum, bringing the theories the professors were attempting to teach into practice. I converted their office into a design space, with butcher paper and post-its covering the walls, in which user interviews drove the brainstorming content. I provided the professors the exposure to the design process required to internalize how to teach the process to students. This experience helped me realize the importance of exposing STEM and design teachers to innovative learning styles and provided me the opportunity to reflect on the challenges of transforming heavily constrained traditional programs into innovative classrooms. In the end, the experience allowed me to impact the programs in two Belgian universities, as well as learn about conducting independent research, gathering and processing data, writing proposals, and developing workshops.
More details of the programs:
I worked directly with Inge Vervoot and her colleagues on a mission to engage engineering students in real world experiences and expose them to the social sector. In order to accomplish this, the programs emphasizes user centered design, design thinking, real world experiences and societal awareness and the social profit sector. This group works on a number of projects, some of which in partnerships which span the European Union. As a student of Olin College, I assisted this team on two of their programs, explained below. I used my experience as a student at Olin College, my design and education courses, and the knowledge I’ve acquired while working for the Collaboratory to write recommendations and proposals to the group.
The first program that I worked with is
Community Service Engineering, or CSE. CSE has been developed by Inge and her colleague Jan to educate recent graduates or professionals as to being socially aware engineers. There is a larger, longer existing program called the Postgraduate Programme in Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Engineering which is also in the school of engineering and has a complementary mission. To enhance both programs, they decided to integrate them. As an outsider with experience in curriculum and user centered design, I gave my opinions and perspective to best integrate the programs to attract more students and give them the most beneficial educational opportunities. In order to best accomplish this, I met with students from both programs who are working on a variety of projects as well as coaches, mentors and administrators of the programs. I attended the CSE classtime to get the best vantage point of the course. You can read my proposal
here.
The second program that I worked with is the Social Ingenious bachelor's degree supplement at Thomas More. At Thomas More, they value having well rounded graduates. The project directors, Inge and Jan, are working to design a degree supplement for bachelor engineering students of some majors and campuses of Thomas More. This degree supplement will fit into their existing degree and only require one extra course of 3 ECTS. I conducted meetings with Jan and the department heads of the respective majors to understand the current curriculum set-up, the goals of the program and the opinions of both parties. I also met with many students to see what they value and desire for their programs. You can read this proposal
here.
I ran workshops for the teaching team where they used the design process to develop their curriculum, bringing the theories the professors were attempting to teach into practice. I converted their office into a design space, with butcher paper and post-its covering the walls, in which user interviews drove the brainstorming content. I provided the professors the exposure to the design process required to internalize how to teach the process to students. This experience helped me realize the importance of exposing STEM and design teachers to innovative learning styles and provided me the opportunity to reflect on the challenges of transforming heavily constrained traditional programs into innovative classrooms.
