Successes and challenges of a Collaborative-PBL program in engineering degrees

Abstract

This paper presents an extracurricular program called INSPIRE3 that has been implemented by the ETSEIAT (Escola Tècnica Superior d’Enginyeries Industrial i Aeronàutica de Terrassa), a center belonging to the UPC-BarcelonaTech (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya). This program is mainly aimed at facilitating cross-curricular skills and developing abilities among students through collaborative-project based learning. The projection of an attractive external image of engineering degrees offered by ETSEIAT in order to increase the enrollment in such degrees is a secondary goal of this program. Under INSPIRE3, several real, challenging and multidisciplinary engineering projects are currently under development. The main feature of this program is that the subjects of the projects are proposed by the students themselves. In this paper, INSPIRE3 motivation, program management and implementation process are described and a short description of projects under development is also given.