From Technology Elaboration Toward Application Innovation: An Instructional Transformation in a Project-oriented Capstone Course of Dynamic Control Systems

摘要

Many courses in engineering programs have long been offered with a primary focus on basic knowledge or skills. Such courses are characterized by lectures (direct teaching) and homework assignments taken from textbooks. This context is deteriorated by the fact that top universities in Taiwan have been emphasizing on research to some extent of overlooking the prominence of instructions. The major stakeholders of engineering education, therefore, have stated major concerns. For example, the government urges to promote economic growth through new and innovative model of high technology business; the employers demands the need for a new set of competences (ie. creativity, leadership and collaboration); college students regard their learning as rich but yet listless, lacking a sense of humanity and meaning. Therefore, a national policy to renew Engineer education was launched by the State Department and financial grants of engineering education reformation. Following this trend, a three-year pioneer curriculum transformation in System Engineering (SE) has been implemented in many research universities. A subprogram within the electrical engineering field is related to system engineering. Its emphasis is attached to the use of system theory in electronic applications, e.g., autonomous vehicles. In fact, electrical engineering related system engineering tends to emphasize control techniques, which are often software-intensive. Managing complexity is an important component of many courses taught within the SE program. Modeling, simulation, reliability, and safety analysis of complex systems are considered to be essential parts of the training required for a successful system engineer.