Abstract:

Project designing is one of the basic professional activities of engineers. With years of experience, engineers are able to work on increasingly complex and demanding projects. At the beginning of their career, junior engineers can be assistant designers on a project, working under the mentorship of a senior, more experienced engineer, until gaining capabilities and legal permit needed for independent work. During their studies in the STEM field, students learn the individual components needed for designing through various courses, building the body of knowledge they bring into their future workplace. The starting point for demonstrating acquired knowledge and skills professionally, is at the same time the finishing event in student’s education – namely the bachelor thesis. As determined by the thesis learning outcomes in the curriculum, the thesis in its written form has obligatory elements (such as Summary, Introduction, Elaboration of the topic, Conclusion, References). Then, it must be presented in front of the thesis defense committee, to demonstrate that they have mastered selected professional topic.

For the overall success of the process of delivering the thesis (by the student) and mentoring (by the teacher) is therefore very important to select the right topic within the study program or regarding the future profession. Already in the initial phase, the mentor must assess the competencies of the student in order to assist them in bringing forward their full potential for the best possible work, while they are framing the thesis assignment together. While conducting thesis research, writing, modelling, prototyping and testing, challenges arise if the topic assigned to the student is too difficult in relation to the expectations on both sides. When the assigned topic requires the creation of a new project solution, the highest level of competence is required (according to the Bloom's taxonomy, to create - produce new or original work). Evidently, designing is the process that requires a significant amount of creativity, and not all students are equally gifted in creative work, nor equally successful in designing when completing their thesis. Hence, whether they will be involved in designing in their future career or not, depends greatly on the experiences gathered in delivering their thesis. In order to pass the defense procedure, the thesis must be completed to the required level of professionalism and therein the role of the mentor is significant.

This paper shows the mentor and student perspective on the bachelor thesis process, through introducing the formal steps of that process and through case studies showing the experience of undergraduate students of electrical engineering at the University North. The experience with two students is presented, first on creating a conceptual project of automatic palletizing of cardboard boxes, and second on preparing a conceptual project for the automation of a food production factory.

Based on the author's experience, the coordination of mentors and students and the procedure for defining the thesis topic should be further elaborated and improved. In addition, the curricula should include more research disciplines, more project work and seminar papers in the final year courses, to contribute to students' knowledge and skills for the independent start on the labor market.

Keywords:

Automation, Bloom's taxonomy, conceptual project, creativity, designing.