Engineering professional skills development: imagined lives and real solutions

Abstract

This paper explores how providing real-life narratives can effectively internationalise a curriculum and lead to an enhanced, more engaged student experience.

Many first-year Australian university students are being required to confront stories of lives beyond their immediate cultural experience. The annual Engineers without Borders (EWB) Challenge involves them in the authentic task of creating low-cost solutions to a range of actual third-world needs. The national winners then implement their projects in partnership with recipients on site: what was story, previously an exercise in imagination, becomes real. Conceptualising through story is an effective pedagogical pathway to developing student skills so that they can conceptualise real problems in needy communities and create practical solutions.