Rethinking Mining Engineering Education – Implementation of Conceive – Design – Implement – Operate (CDIO™)

In the context of the fourth industrial revolution, mining is bound to undergo significant changes within the coming decades. Mining in the sense of Mining 4.0 will not only prioritise the efficient, sustainable and responsible use of available resources, but will also be characterised by digitalisation and automation. In order to adapt to those changes and challenges of the future working environments, the requirements and training profiles of future mining engineers will have to adapt accordingly. Founded in 2000, as an initiative between four universities from Sweden and the USA, the CDIO Initiative provides an innovative framework for the conceptual design of future engineering courses. Its superordinate goal is to define principles and standards, so that engineering principles can be combined with practical applications in the sense of CDIO – Conceiving, Designing, Implementing, Operating. As part of a project funded by the EIT Raw Materials, the CDIO approach is, for the first time on a global scale, transferred to raw materials education by an international consortium consisting of representatives from academia, research and industry.

1  Introduction

Technological developments will be the key to future sustainable development within the mining industry (1). In the context of Mining 4.0 (2) and a responsible use of existing resources, this development also affects increasing demands in the areas of environmental protection, occupational health and safety with simultaneously increasingly more difficult mining conditions. However, as digitalisation and automation enable people, machines and processes to interact in new ways, it also provides the opportunity to support the implementation of the objectives of Mining 4.0, such as selective extraction of raw materials and the development of autonomous mining systems with minimal effect on humans and the geosphere. In accordance with technological innovations, the aforementioned digitalisation and the development of mining towards Mining 4.0 also necessitate the evaluation and adaptation of the requirements and training profile of future mining engineers. Consequently, this challenges universities to rethink the conceptual framework of their education. At the same time, it is important to take into account the change in generations of students, such as the generation Z, members of which are currently commencing their studies, and subsequently, the new types of learning cultures and ways of thinking that they employ (3, 4).

On the one hand, mining engineers of the future have to have in-depth specialised knowledge and expertise at their disposal. On the other hand, they need to be competent concerning social skills, leadership, entrepreneurship, and interdisciplinary collaboration. So-called T-Shaped Professionals, as illustrated in figure 1 (5), require not only extensive in-depth knowledge of their discipline, but also require having an overview over and understanding of the entire value-chain of raw materials. Furthermore, they require a basic understanding of digitalisation and automation, and understanding of the relevance and meaning of social-license-to-operate for mining projects, innovative and entrepreneurial thinking, as well as social and linguistic competences (6).

Fig. 1. Concept of a T-Shaped Professional (5). // Bild 1. Konzept eines T-Shaped Professionals (5).

Due to this plethora of changes in working conditions and requirements, there is a need to reevaluate and reshape the existing approaches of educating future mining engineers. In this context, the global CDIO Initiative provides an innovative didactic framework to prepare mining engineers for their future work environment in the best way possible (7). As a part of a project funded by the EIT Raw Materials, since 2016 the CDIO approach has been transferred to raw materials education by an international consortium consisting of partners from academia, research and industry.

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an independent EU institution with the aim of reinforcing Europe’s innovation capacity and forms an integral part of the Horizon 2020 EU Research and Innovation Framework Program. By bringing together stakeholders from industry, academia and research, the EIT promotes innovative enterprises and creations thereof, and plays an essential role in supporting the EU’s goals of sustainable economic growth and job creation (8). To ensure access to, supply with and sustainable use of raw materials, the EIT founded and promotes the EIT Raw Materials. Nowadays, EIT Raw Materials is the largest consortium of its kind in the world, with around 120 partners from 20 European countries. The promotion of innovations, new training-, education and teaching concepts as well as fostering entrepreneurial ideas intends to improve the competitiveness, growth and attractiveness of Europe’s mining and extractive industry. Furthermore, such developments aim at turning raw materials into a major strength of Europe in the future (9).

2  The CDIO Initiative

In 2000, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Chalmers University of Technology, the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm (KTH), and Linköping University (LiU), established the CDIO Initiative. 18 years later, this project has developed into a global initiative with around 153 universities amongst its members, with the common goal of conceiving and developing new approaches and ideas for modern university education in engineering sciences (10).

The basic idea of CDIO is that graduates of engineering sciences are enabled to implement complex product-, process-, and system building activities according to the CDIO principle – conceiving, designing, implementing and operating – in interdisciplinary teams and apply these principles to develop systems and products (11). The close link between established principles of engineering sciences and practical or real case applications constitutes the most essential component of the training. In order to support the implementation of the CDIO approach at the individual universities, a set of principles and standards was defined. In addition, regional and international conferences provide an opportunity for exchanging ideas, concepts or teaching/learning materials (12).

The emergence of CDIO can be traced back to discussions in the 1970s to 1990s. In training programmes of those times, many universities focused on the training of engineers with highly specialised knowledge, often neglecting personal and interpersonal skills. Gradually, industry representatives voiced concerns, which eventually led to the development of a list of necessary competencies and requirements for engineers. In 1984, Bernard M. Gordon (Analogic Corporation) defined the skills that an engineer should possess: understanding of technical, communicative and (inter-)personal relations, as well as contributing to society by theorising, conceptualising, developing and producing reliable structures and machines of practical and economic value (13). Other companies added additional requirements in the following years. The consequent pressure on universities to rethink and redesign their curricula presented them with new challenges: how can they teach in-depth technical knowledge and understanding of an ever-expanding field whilst simultaneously passing on social skills, internationalisation, interdisciplinary knowledge and innovative entrepreneurial thinking?

Table 1. CDIO Standards (13).

Representatives of universities, governments and industry soon began to discuss various possibilities for improvement, and thus, the CDIO Initiative was established. The initiative began to gather requirements and recommendations proposed by the industry and develop initial guidelines for a holistic education programme for engineers. It evolved into the first of ultimately twelve standards for contemporary engineering education, “the context”. In principle, every engineer should be able to conceive, design, implement and operate (CDIO) technical products, processes and systems. This is preferably done in an international and interdisciplinary team that employs modern technologies. The twelve standards of modern education of engineers are shown in table 1. These standards are concerned with all relevant aspects of the further conceptualisation of engineering seminars, courses and programmes, and include aspects ranging from integrated curriculum development to the types of examinations, evaluations and teacher training (13). The vision the standards are based on contains the following superordinate principles (CDIO Initiative 2017a):

• A curriculum organised around mutually supporting courses, but with CDIO activities highly interwoven.
• Rich with student design-build-test projects.
• Integrating learning of professional skills such as teamwork and communication.
• Featuring active and experiential learning.
• Continuous improvement through quality assurance process with higher aims than accreditation.

These standards may serve as a guidance for the revision of existing study programmes or for the development of new programmes as well as for self-evaluation. Students should be actively involved in the design of the study programmes, e. g. through surveys (3, 13, 14).

3  CDIO in Mining Engineering Education

In order to transfer the CDIO principles and standards to raw materials related programmes for the first time, the EIT Raw Materials funded the project “CDIO: Implementation of Conceive Design Implement and Operate” from 2016 to 2017, from which the current project “CDIO II: Implementing CDIO in Raw Materials Sector” (2018 to 2019) followed. The focus of both projects were and are didactics in terms of advanced training for lecturers at the faculties of the individual partner universities, the design and provision of student teaching and learning environments and innovative laboratories as well as the (further) development of courses, and teaching and learning formats through the integration of active, experiential methods.

3.1  Project CDIO: Implementation of Conceive Design Implement and Operate (2016 – 2017)

The aim of the initial project “CDIO: Implementation of Conceive Design Implement and Operate” was the firstly integration of CDIO principles in already existing master programmes in the field of raw materials. The consortium comprised nine partners from five different countries covering all parts of the knowledge triangle with partners from industry, higher education, and research with complementary skills and experiences. The partners were as follows:

• Luleå University of Technology (LTU) (Coordinator);
• Clausthal University of Technology (CUT);
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM);
• Delft University of Technology (TUD);
• Chalmers University of Technology (CHU);
• University of Limerick (UL);
• Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag (LKAB);
• RUSAL Aughinish Ltd.; and
• RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB (9).

CHU, UL and TUD concentrated primarily on the development of CDIO courses for further training of lecturers in the raw materials sector (19). LTU created a new curriculum, CUT and UPM transferred the CDIO approach to existing courses in their mining engineering master’s degree programmes (15, 16, 17, 18, 19). An example of the development of a course is the conceptualization and implementation of two courses at the CUT, which explicitly integrated aspects of sustainability within mining education (17). Based on the comparison of learning objectives, teaching and learning activities and examinations, students developed subject-specific and target group-oriented communication skills. The teaching and learning activities aimed at a continuous activation of the learners and included various, sometimes divergent views of relevant stakeholders. In order to ensure an appropriate review of the complex skills, a multipart review with transparent evaluation criteria was developed and employed. Another example is the development and production of learning videos that support targeted, self-paced preparation and follow-up in the field of mine ventilation and air conditioning.

3.2  Project CDIO II: Implementing CDIO in Raw Materials Sector (2018 – 2019)

In the context of the project “CDIO II: Implementing CDIO in Raw Materials Sector” and building on the results of the previous project, further essential components for the implementation of the CDIO approach in raw materials education will be conceptualised. Thus, faculty development will be expanded, a joint project course will be conceived and conducted, and existing, innovative laboratories for students of the mining industry will be evaluated leading to guidelines covering best practice examples. Partners in the project are:

• Chalmers University of Technology (Coordinator);
• RWTH Aachen University;
• Luleå University of Technology;
• Universidad Politécnica de Madrid;
• University of Limerick;
• Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebolag; and
• RISE Research Institutes of Sweden AB.

As part of faculty development, lecturers learn in inspirational lectures and faculty development courses how to integrate innovative entrepreneurial skills into technical programs, how to define suitable learning objectives for their course, linked to teaching and learning contents and what type of assessment they could apply to their course, etc. (19).

The goal of the joint project course, which is developed and carried out in cooperation with the industrial partners LKAB and RISE, is that students from different universities investigate together actual issues and real problems from the industry. It also enables students to work on problems from their future work environment in an international, multicultural team and to apply the skills acquired in their course of studies while practicing their communication skills in foreign languages and across long distances. Thus, they become acquainted with interdisciplinary working methods and simultaneously learn to adapt the results of their joint work for the different needs and requirements of their respective universities and industrial partners.

The creation of guidelines based on existing best practice examples and the establishment of an international CDIO network for innovative learning laboratories in the field of raw materials should help to improve and redevelop learning environments for students and promote the international exchange of teaching materials and experiences. The control technology test bench of the Institute for Advanced Mining Technologies (AMT) at the RWTH Aachen University might be cited as an example of such a laboratory (Figure 2).

Fig. 2. Control technology test bench at AMT. // Bild 2. Steuerungstechnikprüfstand am AMT. Source/Quelle: RWTH

The test bench introduces the students to the basics of control technology using a programmable logic controller (PLC). The accompanying lecture deals primarily with the basics of control engineering, whilst the practical attempt illustrates the programming of such a PLC. By using the shield extension model, the students are thus able to familiarise themselves with the basics of control engineering, implementation of various extension methods and steps and the solution of a given problem in a group.

4  Conclusion and Outlook

Increasing digitalisation and developments of the mining industry towards Mining 4.0 with its subsequent technological innovations require an adaption of respective requirements and education profiles for future mining engineers. As expectations of graduates are becoming increasingly complex, these engineers should not only have a high level of specialised knowledge, but also a high degree of other skills, such as personal and interpersonal skills, methodological competence, innovative capabilities as well as the ability to lead or collaborate in interdisciplinary and international teams. This requires linking the acquisition of technical skills with that of interdisciplinary competences during the respective course of studies. One approach is the CDIO Initiative, which is an innovative framework for a modern university engineering education. It is the aim of the projects CDIO and CDIO II, funded by EIT Raw Materials, to apply those approaches to raw materials education for the first time. Within the framework of CDIO II additional training for lecturers at the partner universities as well as a project course for students will be developed and implemented. By evaluating existing innovative students’ laboratories for mining engineering education, an international CDIO network for best practice laboratories is to be created, which with the help of guidelines should prove support and inspiration for the expansion of the new development of laboratories for students.

Acknowledgments

The presented material is based upon work supported and funded by the EIT Raw Materials (Project ID 15013 (2016 – 2017) and 17165 (2018 – 2019)). We would like to thank our colleagues from industry, academia and research institutions who provided insight and expertise that greatly assisted the project.