EXPERIENCES FROM A POSITIVISTIC WAY OF TEACHING IN THE FUZZY FRONT END

DS 93: Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2018), Dyson School of Engineering, Imperial College, London. 6th - 7th September 2018

Year: 2018
Editor: Erik Bohemia, Ahmed Kovacevic, Lyndon Buck, Peter Childs, Stephen Green, Ashley Hall, Aran Dasan
Author: Slåttsveen, Kristoffer; Kriesi, Carlo; Steinert, Martin; Aasland, Knut Einar
Series: E&PDE
Institution: NTNU, Norway
Section: Project / Problem-Based Learning (PBL) in Design and Engineering Education
Page(s): 694-699
ISBN: 978-1-912254-02-6

Abstract

This paper presents a project based graduate course in early stage product development called Fuzzy Front End. Based on a brief theory-based perspective and data from student interviews as well as stakeholders we provide a discussion ground for the format of the course. The main goal of the course is to educate confident engineers by providing a complete experience of an early stage product development process with all its positive and negative facets. Our findings indicate that the course provides strong motivational factors, as well as a collaborative mind-set amongst the teams that creates a motivational atmosphere for high quality project-outcomes. This insight is the starting point for highlighting shortcomings of a competition-based course format and discussing a potential alternative.

Keywords: Fuzzy Front End, Competition, Project-Based Education, Product Development

Download