Adoption of the Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate approach to the Third Year Project in a team-based design-build environment

The high-quality engineering education is one of the challenges in the 21 st century, where the teaching-learning process will be enhanced by integrating and involving the students in the teaching process and the course will be delivered in an interesting and engaging way. So in the process of reforming the engineering education, the Department of Mechanical Engineering of RIT, Rajaramnagar has initiated Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate (CDIO) approach to produce the 21 st -century engineers. CDIO approach caters an engineering education that stresses fundamentals set in the context of real-world systems and products. It provides a universal structure for a strong engineering education integrating an entire set of graduate attributes. Developing undergraduate students into successful engineers requires integration of technical knowledge and soft skills. As a part of CDIO implementation, the mechanical program has been modified to provide integrated team-based project learning. The paper presents the implementation methodology of the concept with an emphasis on the Third year design projects. As per the CDIO standards and syllabus, the program has been modified and the required facilities were made available in the college campus such as Workspaces and laboratories. The structured research-driven approach is provided to monitor and review the implementation of the CDIO principles and standards. It is observed that CDIO provides integrated learning to develop deep learning of technical knowledge whilst simultaneously develops personal, interpersonal, process, product, and system developing skills. The primary outcome of the CDIO is the students are exposed to the work environment used in the industry for the product and process development and the secondary outcome is that it provides a useful tool for devolvement and assessment of the skill set of the students. Finally, the effect of CDIO initiative for project enrichment is discussed and future plan is presented.