Abstract:

During the last decades the different programmes of studies in the engineering studies in Spain has considered the vital importance of the achievement of a technical project as the summit of the knowledge acquired by the students. Recently in many Universities and engineering degrees this technical project has been progressively abandoned and substituted by other kind of final works, mainly research projects or professional reports. It is under discussion the success of this change in terms of the student satisfaction, learning outcomes, professional bodies’ point of view etc.

This paper presents the evolution of the technical project as degree final work in the last thirty years especially in the Spanish Agricultural Engineering degrees, the complexity level, ways of defence, tutorial aspects, examination boards, results etc. It compares the situation in the different Universities offering these degrees.

The paper also presents a list of the positive and negative aspects of the different kinds of final work, considering the educational modern techniques and trends and gives a set of recommendations to enhance and improve the educational capabilities of the technical projects in the education of the future engineers.

The authors can offer an experience of more than 1000 technical projects as final degree works over the last 20 years.

References:
Blicblau, A. S. (2004). Promotion of final year capstone projects. Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition
Popov A. (2003). Final undergraduate project in engineering: towards more efficient and effective tutorials. European Journal of Engineering Education 28 (1): 17-26
Ruwanpura, J. Y., Brown, T. G. (2006). Innovative Final-Year Undergraduate Design Project Course Using an International Project. J. Profl. Issues in Engrg. Educ. and Pract. 132 (4): 297-305

Keywords:

capstone projects, agricultural engineering, programme of studies.