VALUE ENGINEERING AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL FORIMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS

摘要

Value Engineering (VE) as a problem solving technique capitalizesso much on team-work, function analysis and creativity, which are allskills that engineering educators try hard to establish in their students.The practice of VE, requires good command of other supportingskills, such as work discipline and communication skills.Graduates from the different Saudi colleges of engineering are in real need for such skills to claimtheir share of jobs in the local private industries. The adaptation of VE concepts in the engineeringeducation in our engineering programs constitutes a good tool that can support our efforts in Saudizingthe engineering sector.This paper describes the evolution of value engineering education at the college of engineering at KingSaud University. It details the format and procedure by which VE concepts were integrated in ageneral engineering course. This paper also describes a new experience in VE education, were a groupof cap-stone project students have practiced the VE technique in a team format on a real life projectfor an entire academic year. Several engineering professors from different engineering disciplinesworked with the student-team as advisors.Positive results were measured in this experience. Students have demonstrated better interaction inteam-work. Improvements in the group's functional analysis/ creativity and communication skills wereobserved as well. A controlled test was used to judge the improvements in the group under the study.