Innovations in Engineering Education

Prof. B. Suresha
The National Institute of Engineering, Mysuru-570 008, Karnataka, India

The purpose of this paper is to present an analytical review of innovation in engineering

education. It outlines classification of innovations, discusses the hurdles to innovation, and
offers ways to increase the scale and rate of innovation-based transformations in the
engineering education system. The paper is based on a literature survey and author
research.
Products, processes, systems etc. have to develop with time or with need. Such
development either takes place slowly through natural development, or in an accelerated
manner through engineered development, or quite rapidly in almost a step-function form
through innovation. Engineering education badly needs effective innovations of scale that
can help produce the needed high-quality learning outcomes across the system. The
primary focus of educational innovations should be on teaching and learning theory and
practice, as well as on the learner, parents, community, society, and its culture.
Technology applications need a solid theoretical foundation based on purposeful,
complete research, and a sound pedagogy. One of the critical areas of research and
innovation can be cost and time efficiency of the learning.
The role of any engineering education programme, in addition to giving core scientific
knowledge, should be to boost the creativity aspect within the students, so that more
engineering graduates would move towards higher creativity, better innovation and novel
inventions. This can be achieved through:
Appropriate curriculum design
Supporting co-curricular activities
Collective team work and diversified activities
Strong ties with industry
Establishing a creative and innovative environment in the engineering school
through engineering and technology facilitators who can steer the imagination and
enthusiasm of students.
To achieve long-term objectives of enhancing creativity and innovation within engineering
graduates require a 5-package programme as follows:
Core scientific knowledge
Co-curricular inter-related creativity-oriented workshops, seminars, competitions
Engineering projects at different levels
Exposure to technology incubators, entrepreneurial projects and small and medium
enterprises.
Interaction with business and industry.
Several practical recommendations branch out of this paper are as follows:
How to create a base for large-scale innovations and their implementation
How to increase effectiveness of technology innovations in engineering education;
particularly online learning
How to raise time and cost efficiency of engineering education.
Innovations in engineering education are regarded, along with the education system,
within the context of a societal super system demonstrating their interrelations and
interdependencies at all levels. Raising the quality and scale of innovations in education
will positively affect engineering education itself and benefit the whole society.
Originality is in the total approach to engineering education and educational innovations, in
offering a comprehensive classification of innovations; in revealing the hurdles to
innovations, in new arguments about usefulness of technology applications, and in time
efficiency of education. The development of creative and innovative skills in an
engineering graduate cannot be guaranteed by relying only on traditional engineering
subjects and classical teaching approaches. On the other hand, subjects that are strongly
related to the field of specialization cannot be overlooked as they constitute the core
knowledge of the engineering specialization. Therefore, additional subjects to enhance
creativity and innovation must be added in conjunction with the specialization subjects.