STRENGTHENING ENGINEERING SKILLS BY MEANS OF PROBLEM SOLVING ORIENTED COURSES IN HIGHER EDUCATION PROGRAMS

New generations of engineers will face an increasingly complex reality and will need to drive society and technology towards a sustainable development. Hence, it is extremely important to educate highly qualified professionals with well-founded engineering skills. Therefore, the spirit of reflective reasoning and constructive criticism must be present in high education programs, thus promoting the acquisition of creative engineering thinking and skills to face problems found in the industry.

This contribution presents the educational experience in real problem solving oriented courses in two engineering disciplines, namely software and chemical engineering. Specifically, the course structures are presented, and a repository of case studies Is provided. From a methodological perspective, several complementary approaches are applied to foster interest and to support students to acquire engineering skills in problems solving, namely contextualizing the problem, connecting the concepts, setting clear objectives, practice of the scientific method, and managerial oriented activities, such as information exchange, writing reports, the participation in work teams and preparation of presentations integrated in the dynamics of the class, foster interdisciplinary skills.