CDIO Workshops and Laboratories Survey for the Vehicle Engineering Program at the Royal Institute of Technology, KTH

By HP Wallin and Sören Östlund

A survey of the activities and physical spaces with respect to workshops and laboratories in the Vehicle Engineering Program at KTH was undertaken as part of the CDIO program. The results of the survey include the total number of students at each department that are involved in the eight different workshop and laboratory activities described in this investigation, i.e., activities outside traditional classroom teaching including lectures and tutorials. The results of the survey show that there is a strong relation between the type of subject and the use of workshops and laboratories. In mathematics and numerical analysis, and computing science, there are only a few students involved in activities which take place in particular workshop or laboratory spaces; even then, these students are in a “Student Work Place Mode”. On the other hand, in more applied subjects like machine design, vehicle engineering, and aeronautics, a large number of students are involved in more or less all of the eight different workshop and laboratory activities considered in this investigation. Traditional engineering science subjects like mechanics and solid mechanics typically end up somewhere between these two extremes. The survey also presents the equipment available at the different workshop and laboratory spaces available to the Vehicle Engineering students, as well as the type of general and CDIO-related activities taking place in the different spaces. (2002)