Implementation of a Multidisciplinary Professional Skills Course at an Electrical Engineering School

Abstract

Abstract-This paper describes a case study of an innovative approach to teaching at an engineering school. The postgraduate course Project Work and Communication in Research and Development (R&D) was developed at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia. The main aim of the course was to make the entry of young engineering graduates into the business environment as easy as possible. Currently, engineers are facing more and more interdisciplinarity and project work in their daily assignments. The course was designed to remedy any deficiencies in the multidisciplinary professional skills and knowledge of the graduate-level students, and it covered the topics of innovation management, communication in R&D, project management, and problem solving in teams. An end-of-course survey showed positive feedback from participating students. The empirical data (enrollment ratio of students, session attendance ratio, and average student grade) proves that the course met its goal of honing the professional skills of postgraduate engineering students.Index Terms-Communication, education, electrical engineering education, problem solving, project management, research and development (R&D).

Joining Efforts of Employers and Educational Institutions to Develop Competent Graduates

“…Although the importance of soft skills has long been on the agenda of business education through international accreditation standards (e.g., AACSB and EQUIS), there are still questions regarding the effectiveness of implementation (Schulz, 2008). On the other hand, higher education institutions in the engineering field lag behind (Kumar & Hsiao, 2007), despite some notable efforts by engineering schools (e.g., Mohan et al, 2009;Gider et al, 2012).…”

Developing professional skills at tertiary level: A model to integrate competencies across the curriculum

“…All of them stress the importance of raising awareness of these concerns as indicated by means of student polls [16,21,22]. …”

Multimedia polysensory integration training system dedicated to children with educational difficulties

“…Assuming these facts, teaching methods in education should be developed in two dimensions: individualized teaching and training of cognitive capacity. The past decades, taking advantage of computer technology, developed many didactic computer exercises, collaborative learning (Lingnau et al 2003), mixedreality technology such as motion capture or up-to-date robots, games that progress both mental and manual skills in schoolchildren and students (Gider et al 2012;Sugimoto 2011;Sung et al 2011). The newer technology era concerns game technology that are created to assist students in other than school activities, such as for example learning to dance.…”