Workshop: learning that makes a difference - cross-disciplinary student projects with a real impact

Working on real-world cases increases the motivation for learning, and prepares engineering students to become problem solvers. This is even more so for projects that have the potential to create visible and lasting impact, e.g. related to problems of social or environmental sustainability. Such problems are usually open ended, and require students to work together across - which can also create stress and uncertainty, because the road to success is not known from the beginning. This presents an excellent fit with the conference theme: "Overcoming Uncertainty – Building Bridges Between Society And Learning In The Future". The workshop is centered around three main challenges that we have experienced during the Erasmus+ EGALITARIAN project, which is focused on having students solving problems together across borders and disciplines: 1) How to scope projects, so they fit learning objectives and at the same time supports a real case. Student projects and courses are often defined through learning objectives. When working with real-world challenges, this can be challenging, since the real cases are not “designed” around the learning objectives. 2) How to ensure projects are making real impact. Working with NGOs and other organisations, can be rewarding. However, such organisations often have limited time and resources available, so it is important that the solutions developed are useful and create value. On the other hand, student projects are not always reaching that level of maturity, because the learning is in focus rather than the result. 3) How to support the students throughout the journey? Working with multiple stakeholders can be challenging. The format of the workshop is highly interactive, and consists of: Short introduction, Group work, where each group should come up with 1-3 ways to address each challenge and add it on a digital board, Presentations from the groups in plenum.