Engineering education developed at the international CDIO Conference 12–16 June 2016

We are involved in CDIO, an international development network of engineering education. Its aim is to help the education better meet the needs of working life.

The most important event of the CDIO network is a conference, where the representatives of the member higher education institutions meet each other in terms of seminars, workshops and poster presentations. This year the conference will be organized in Turku on 12–16 June 2016. In addition, in connection with the conference, a CDIO Academy is organized for engineering students. This year the development challenge for the international groups will be given by the shipbuilding company MeyerTurku.

Dean Juha Kontio from TUAS is a member of the CDIO network’s Council, which develops the CDIO approach and strengthens the network’s operations. The Council is guided by the idea of developing engineering education to better meet the needs of working life:                                                                                                                           

“Through these activities, we get tools for promoting one of the strategic spearheads of TUAS: the technological innovation university of the future”, says Kontio

Meyer challenges students to innovate solutions for new-generation cruise passengers

Yearly in connection with the CDIO Conference, the CDIO Academy is organized for engineering students from around the globe. The teams, which consist of 4–5 students, develop solutions for a given challenge. The themes in this year’s Academy are sustainable development, shipbuilding and the needs of cruise passengers of the future. This year the challenge was provided for the students by the shipbuilding company Meyer Turku.

“The solutions might be related to different service concepts, digitalization, resource efficiency, robotics or the Internet of Things and means of gamifications", says Lecturer Riikka Kulmala from TUAS, who is in charge of the CDIO Academy. 

Companies within the maritime cluster employ about 20 000 Finns. Experts from different fields, such as welders, sheet-iron workers, project managers and shipbuilding engineers are constantly needed (the Federation of Finnish Technology Industries).

“This year we have taken on a topic which is significant also within the region”, Kulmala says.

About 50 students from almost 10 different countries have taken on the CDIO Academy challenge. The international teams have participants from Russia, Vietnam, China, the Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Singapore and Finland.

The CDIO Initiative is an innovative educational framework for producing the next generation of engineers. The global network is organized into different regions: Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Each region is supervised by one or several regional leaders. Turku University of Applied Sciences has been a member of CDIO since 2007 and Dean Juha Kontio has been one of the European regional leaders since January 2013. Since the beginning of 2016, Kontio has been a Member at-large of the CDIO Council.