Developping a product design engineering program : experience of a french school transformation
Résumé
The launch of the Bologna process is significantly modifying the European Higher Education landscape since 1999 and is a way of reinforcing the European Council ambition to become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world" . The degree evolution into a three-cycle system as well as students, teachers and researchers mobility within Europe are priorities. For engineering schools this institutional reform is an opportunity to review their organisation and programs. It needs to take into consideration other substantial changes one can find within industries, whether they are of economical, technological, material, social or organisational nature. We worked on the educational transformation of the product and engineering design Master of Science degree proposed by INPG (Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble) in France. After a reflection about the change process the objective of this paper is twofold: to present the new curriculum and to propose a methodological approach which could be implemented in another educational context. Besides the use of a holistic approach, a first overview of the global context and a diagnostic of the institution as-is situation, we investigate the skills, knowledge and proficiency areas a product design engineer should develop or acquire at school. Based on industry needs and researchers' interviews, we propose then tools and methods to help envisioning the future curriculum structure that a new engineering department would offer.