Abstract
Nowadays, accreditation organizations for engineering programs put more and more emphasis on learning outcomes integrating multifaceted competences (scientific and technical skills, but also teamwork, communication, etc.). In this context, this paper discusses the relevance of project-based learning initiatives for teaching structural optimization, in the light of recent literature on the subject, as well as based on our experience in a course on form finding and structural optimization at the Brussels Faculty of Engineering. Although each project-based course has its specificities related to the teachers, their expertise, and the curriculum philosophy, some general guidelines are proposed, stressing the importance of a proper understanding of the mathematical and physical concepts, but also underlining the need to ensure sufficient room for creativity among the students.
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Notes
As a remark, it can be noticed that several project-based initiatives have been developed for a decade at the ULB, but mostly for undergraduate students, as introductions to general fields like physics (Blondeau and et al 2009)
ECTS stands for European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, and constitutes the unit of measure for all courses in the European Union since the Bologna Process. One ECTS corresponds to 25 to 30 h of work by the student. Usually, it corresponds to 12 h of lectures or 12 h of exercises (notwithstanding the personal work by the student).
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Acknowledgments
Writing this paper has been largely motivated by the active participation of the students who followed the course in 2012-2013, namely: Amin Ben Ayad, Ikram Cherradi, Farhat Fazeli, Anna Popova, Salma Saadi, Ana Sánchez Corujo, and Florentin Serdenciuc. Their enthusiasm and energy in working on the projects have been highly appreciated.
Part of this paper was written during a visiting stay by the first author at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (Princeton University), for which Prof. Sigrid Adriaenssens is deeply acknowledged.
Finally, the authors are grateful to the Editor and Reviewers for their fruitful and interesting comments, as well as to James N. Richardson for his careful reading of the paper.
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Coelho, R.F., Tysmans, T. & Verwimp, E. Form finding & structural optimization. Struct Multidisc Optim 49, 1037–1046 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-013-1021-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-013-1021-7