Abstract:

Technical and professional knowledge will always be necessary to engineers’ career development, especially in first-time job experiences. They are nevertheless insufficient to address all the relational dimensions at company-level. Skills and attitudes are to be developed for engineers to effectively perform and lead others into meaningful, responsibly-managed, sustainable endeavors.

The Comprehensive Ontological Learning Model (MOAI, by its Spanish acronym) uses active training methodologies and puts the student as centerpiece of the education process. To achieve this the model stresses the importance of faculty engagement, faculty training and learning communities.

MOAI was developed based on the traditions of Maturana, Camargo, Varela and Flores. It has been adopted by the Engineering and Technology Faculty at Universidad San Sebastian (FIT USS), and at some courses at the Industrial Engineering Department at Universidad de Chile (DII UCH). At FIT USS the process of adopting MOAI included the development of new, skills-oriented curricula, a new teaching style and new teaching methodologies.

This article presents some of the challenges of implementing MOAI at FIT USS, specially concerning faculty re-orientation. Results are summarized in terms of an innovation ecosystem that includes students and teachers, quantitative indicators such as lower drop-out rates and qualitative results stemming from first undergraduate cohorts who were well-scored by employers and internship-supervisors alike.

Keywords:

Engineering Education, Learning, Innovation, Change Management, Design, Soft Skills.