Abstract:

In the field of engineering we currently observe two critical developments. First, industry widely struggles with filling central engineering positions with well-educated and suited candidates. Second, the other end of the career track, the universities, struggle to appeal enough students for MINT subjects. Some reasons presumably include the traditional image of technical subjects and the assigned (social) characteristics in that field. Other reasons may be related to the way, technology has been taught in the past, which often is considered rusty and mentally exhausting. The question that rises in this context: is this a ”God-given” or can teaching plans and curriculums be pimped towards a more entertaining and appealing setup?

One trend observed in industrial engineering especially is the human-centric approach, which is one of the big three paradigms of the industry 5.0 framework. How can the technology serve the human? This topic is analysed and treated in the Erasmus+ funded Learning & Experimentation OpeN-Access factoRy for inDustrial wOrkforce 5.0 (LEONARDO) project, focusing on the development of an appealing learning factory, incorporating an interactive brewing equipment as a vehicle for “sexy” education. Target of this project is the development of a higher educationally suited curriculum for future-proof education of engineering students along with suited and necessary measures of successfully training the trainers to execute this curriculum at its best.

This paper describes letting a test balloon fly in the project context checking for adequate and modern means of educating engineering students, incorporating the participation of eight selected engineering students from the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria at the ITQ Smart Green Island (SGI) Makeathon on Gran Canaria. The selected students have been passing an intrinsic assessment process proofing their overall motivation to contribute to the engineering community. The Makeathon event involved a two-day onboarding phase on Gran Canaria and four days of hacking and making in the SGI Makeathon context. Overall, more than 400 students participated in that event. The given project has been linked to the targets of the LEONARDO project, namely implementing certain parts of the later to be used and installed brewing learning factory, focusing on the commissioning of various sensors in the brewing context. While the defined task purely seems like a classic engineering approach, the students faced plenty of environmental dependencies and confrontations. Those include struggling with the technology, group dynamics (role assignment), unforeseen personal difficulties, interaction with other groups (surrounding working spirit), interdisciplinarity (code, solder, present, plan, design, …) and many more.

The essence of this paper, along with describing the chosen setup and LEONARDO project scope in detail, is a student feedback-based evaluation of relevance, suitability, perception, and applicability of the Makeathon concept for general modern educational purposes, estimating the impact of the latter on the future educational and industrial workforce market. The evaluation will be presented and performed based on both emotional and technical reporting delivered by the participating selected students.

Acknowledgement:
Funding: LEONARDO is funded by the European Commission under the Erasmus+ programme KA-220 Cooperation Partnerships for Higher Education – No. 2023-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000164699.

Keywords:

Industrial engineering, mint gap, student centric education, smart green island makeathon, modern education.