Designing and implementing interdisciplinary projects in a systems engineering master programme

Abstract

Interdisciplinary projects (IP) carried out by teams of students have been recognized as an important approach for learning in several fields and at several levels of education. In higher education, it can be an important drive for student learning motivation and an advantage for students when entering the working marketplace. The experience acquired while developing IP gives students technical and transversal competences highly relevant for employment but above all give students confidence and a competitive advantage. This paper aims at describing and discussing an experience in carrying out interdisciplinary projects in the context of a System Engineering Master (SEM) programme. First we explore the SEM programme philosophy and organization focussed on IP-based learning and then, for a particular IP course unit of the SEM, the dimensions of project design and specification, project interdisciplinarity, teaching team organization, support to students, project evaluation and individual students’ assessment. The authors argue that the IP learning model adopted in the case here reported is a good example of an IP-based learning at a master degree level.