Abstract:

The Degree in Industrial Technology Engineering is a generalist grade, which includes technical studies and scientific-technological bases in subjects such as mechanics, materials, chemistry, electricity, electronics, automation, thermodynamics, etc. This multidisciplinary nature is one of the most valued characteristics of the degree. However, today's society also demands professionals from the industrial sector to incorporate sustainability criteria into their strategic decisions. This new reality has already been included in the degree guidelines, which defines the "ability to analyse and assess the social and environmental impact of technical solutions" as the first competence. Nonetheless, sustainability is not specifically covered in any of the courses of the degree. Therefore, we have established a methodology to introduce the Agenda 2030 of the United Nations, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in the Degree Final Project (DFP).

Besides sustainability, the methodology also aims at improving the teaching-learning experiences of the DFP by facing the main deficiencies observed by the authors:
• Students who begin a research study need to strengthen their training in fundamental aspects such as the search for information and the criteria for contrasting its quality, the formulation of hypotheses, the experimental design, or the analysis and communication of results.
• Research work is carried out on very specific topics within a knowledge area. Therefore, the students can lose the multidisciplinary nature inherent to the Industrial Engineer.
• The development of some key transversal competences is limited, since the interaction between students is not encouraged.

Under this background, the developed methodology establishes three main objectives, as well as seven transversal competences to be developed:
1. To increase students' capacity to analyse and assess the social and environmental impact of technical solutions. To this end, several research DFP will be proposed to address a common challenge: “to improve sustainability and reduce the environmental impact in key industrial sectors of the Basque Country”. This challenge, framed within SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure), will be addressed from different approaches, each of which will cover several engineering disciplines. Transversal competences: social commitment, and ethics and professional responsibility.
2. To improve the teaching-learning process of the DFP through the systematic application of the Research Based Learning methodology. Transversal competences: information management, autonomy and self-regulation, and critical thinking.
3. To promote the multidisciplinary vision of Industrial Engineering. A multidisciplinary and multilingual working group will be generated to enable synergies and knowledge transfer. Transversal competences: communication and plurilingualism, and teamwork.

The detailed teaching guide allows implementing this methodology in other degrees as it includes:
• The teaching methods, which consist of seminars, experimental and tutorial work. In the former, topics related to sustainability, the scientific method, and writing and oral communications are covered.
• The learning achievements for each topic.
• A complete description of the evaluation tools.
• The statistical tools and the characteristics of the control group to assess the results of the implementation.

Keywords:

Agenda 2030, sustainable development goals, final degree project, research based learning.