1. A Market Approach for
Curricular Capstone-Internships
António Cardoso Costa
Dep. Eng.ª Informática
ISEP-IPP, Portugal
TEEM'15: 7-9 October 2015 @ ISEP

2. Ecosystem of a modern engineering program (1)

3. ISEP and LEI-ISEP
• ISEP, a 163 years old public engineering school
– Located in Porto, Portugal (very fashionable nowadays)
• +6700 students, 400 teachers and 120 staf
– In 2015-2016 ISEP ofers
• 12 first cycle engineering 3-year programs (bachelor)
• 11 second cycle engineering 2-year programs (master)
• 19 post-graduation one-year programs
– About ISEP Informatics Engineering Program (LEI-ISEP)
• Portuguese bachelor degree with the largest enrolment of
freshmen (+300) and amount of students (+1200)
• For 2015-2016 there were 1040 candidates for 210 slots

4. The CDIO™ Initiative
• CDIO motivation
– Change the Engineering
Education Process
– Founders 2000:
MIT, Chalmers,
KTH and Linköping
Personal and Interpersonal
Skills, and Product, Process, and
System Building Skills
Before 1950
Practice
1960
Science
& Practice
1980
Science
2000
CDIO
Disciplinary Knowledge

5. The CDIO™ Initiative
• The “Need” of CDIO
– Educate students who understand how to Conceive-Design-
Implement-Operate complex value-added engineering
systems in a modern team-based engineering environment
• The “Objectives” of CDIO
– Educate students to master a deeper working knowledge of
the technical fundamentals
– Educate engineers to lead in the creation and operation of
new products and systems
– Educate all to understand the importance and strategic
impact of research and technological development on society

6. The CDIO™ Initiative
• CDIO adoption
– Described using 12 standards of good-practice
1. CDIO as Context
2. CDIO Syllabus Outcomes
3. Integrated Curriculum
4. Introduction to Engineering
5. Design-Build Experiences
6. CDIO Workspaces
7. Integrated Learning Experiences
8. Active Learning
9. Enhancement of Faculty CDIO Skills
10. Enhancement of Faculty Teaching Skills
11. CDIO Skills Assessment
12. CDIO Program Evaluation
}
}Key performance
indicators!

7. The CDIO™ Initiative
• Generic CDIO Syllabus for description of outcomes (1)
– 1 DISCIPLINARY KNOWLEDGE AND REASONING
• 1.1 KNOWLEDGE OF UNDERLYING DISCIPLINES
• 1.2 CORE DISCIPLINARY FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
• 1.3 ADVANCED DISCIPLINARY FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE, METHODS
AND TOOLS
– 2 PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL SKILLS AND ATTRIBUTES
• 2.1 ANALYTIC REASONING AND PROBLEM SOLVING
• 2.2 EXPERIMENTATION, INVESTIGATION AND KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY
• 2.3 SYSTEM THINKING
• 2.4 ATTITUDES, THOUGHT AND LEARNING
• 2.5 ETHICS, EQUITY AND OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES

8. The CDIO™ Initiative
• Generic CDIO Syllabus for description of outcomes (2)
– 3 INTERPERSONAL SKILLS: TEAMWORK/COMMUNICATION
• 3.1 TEAMWORK
• 3.2 COMMUNICATIONS
• 3.3 COMMUNICATIONS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES
– 4 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN THE ENTERPRISE, SOCIETAL AND
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT
• 4.1 EXTERNAL, SOCIETAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT
• 4.2 PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT
• 4.3-6 CDIO CONTEXTS
– The outcomes encompass 4 levels and describe the minimum
required performance levels (Bloom cognitive scale, etc.)

9. The CDIO™ Initiative at LEI-ISEP
• An undergraduate program (Bologna 1st cycle)
–
+300 freshmen and +1200 students in 2015-16

10. The CDIO™ Initiative at LEI-ISEP
• CDIO inspired integrated learning processes
– LEI software engineering learning process

11. The CDIO™ Initiative at LEI-ISEP
• Relevant consequences of CDIO adoption at LEI-ISEP
– LEI-ISEP Syllabus definition (2007, revised 2015)
– Definition and update of simultaneous learning processes,
ensuring the alignment of courses with Syllabus
– Courses developing personal, interpersonal, social and
engineering skills, providing context to the disciplinary
knowledge
– Larger involvement and responsibility of faculty
– Emphasis in student group learning over teaching
– Extensive feedback about the program and its outcomes in
the context of capstone-internship projects and activities

12. The CDIO™ Initiative at LEI-ISEP
• Self-evaluation of CDIO implementation

13. Capstone-internship performance at LEI-ISEP
• Program results, students and graduates
– Very high and growing interest from employers about the
capstone-internship projects:
• 2012-13, 394 approved projects - 191 assigned
• 2013-14, 420 approved projects - 181 assigned
• 2014-15, 417 approved projects - 227 assigned
– Very high student and graduate employability
– Increased interaction between employers and LEI-ISEP
– The first Portuguese bachelor program certified with the
EUR-ACE Quality Seal by Ordem dos Engenheiros and
ENAAE in 2013 (for 6 years)

14. Assessment and evaluation at LEI-ISEP
• Capstone-internship assessment and evaluation
– Several instruments used and periodically revised
– External Supervisor Inquiry
• For advisers: student assessment of ACM computing capabilities
– CDIO Evaluation in Capstone-Internships
• For advisers: collect data to verify if the CDIO second level student
outcomes are achieved
– Presentation before a jury of a single student or a group
• Jury of 3 teachers + LEI adviser(s) + external supervisor(s)
• Capstone grade: 50% project solution + 50% technical report

15. Capstone-internship results at LEI-ISEP
• Capstone grades between 2008-2014

16. Graduate profiling at LEI-ISEP
• Graduates descriptor based grading 2010-2014

17. Capstone-internship inquiries at LEI-ISEP
• Student skills/competence from supervisor inquiries

18. Ecosystem of a modern engineering program (2)
EUR-ACE
Labels
EUR-ACE
Labels

19. Conclusions about CDIO™ and EUR-ACE
• Positive impacts at ISEP
– Evidence accumulated since 2012
• First option student applications have increased
• Student dropout in programs has been reduced
• Teachers applying active pedagogical methods in classes
• The graduation rate of most ISEP programs has increased
• More industry contacts with teachers and managers
• Industry more interested in cooperating with programs
• Recognition from accreditation/certification agencies, IT
academies, industry, alumni, media, etc.
• Nowadays relevant labels for youth, families and employers

20. A Market Approach for
Curricular Capstone-Internships
António Cardoso Costa
Dep. Eng.ª Informática
ISEP-IPP, Portugal
TEEM'15: 7-9 October 2015 @ ISEP