Resumen de A project-based approach professional skills training in an undergraduate engineering curriculum

Diana Bairaktarova, Monica F. Cox, Mohit Srivastava

• STEM leadership education as a formal discipline is not present in the majority of higher institutions. Similar is the casewith ethics in engineering schools. Although ethics is recognized as a crucial aspect in developing the professional identityof engineers, it is still not required as a mandatory course in all engineering curricula. This study introduces a project thatsimulates a real-world engineering application and uses this task to examine how the assignment objectives influenceemployment of students’ leadership skills and social responsibility awarness. The participants were from three differentgroups – (1) learning communities, (2) traditional sections, and (3) international sections. It was hypothesized that therewould be different outcomes of the students teams projects considering the three different missions of the groups. Resultscorroborated the hypothesis. The learning community teams proposed projects that best addressed the assignmentobjectives and enhanced professional skills in the utilization of the course project compared to the traditional andinternational sections. Outcomes are discussed in terms of underlying links in assignment objectives and the enhancementof professional skills in engineering instruction.