How can the development direction of the “macro-engineering education” in higher engineering education be met, disciplinary barriers among majors broken down, and innovative talents with interdisciplinary integration fostered? In view of the weakness of engineering in China’s higher engineering education, Prof. Guan, a member of the Chemical Engineering in National Institutions of Higher Learning Professional Teaching Steering Committee, an Expert in China Engineering Education Accreditation, and a prestigious teacher of higher education in Jiangsu Province, and his team aim at the frontier of engineering education development at home and abroad. Based on the demand for engineering talents in chemical process, process equipment, control engineering, and safety engineering in the process of chemical production, they integrate various professional knowledge and cultivate innovative interdisciplinary talents. Under the constraint of a general design goal, they have combined engineering cases and built a set of three-dimensional engineering training systems with interdisciplinary integration, which explores and solves the existing problems of long-term disciplinary teaching, single engineering practice teaching modes, and lack of “interdisciplinary” teaching and research teams.
Taking the Lead and Establishing The Integrated Teaching and Research Team
Students are the learning subjects, with teachers only the learning partners of students, and only an interdisciplinary integrated faculty can cultivate compound cross-border talents, which is what Prof. Guan has learned from more than three decades of front-line teaching. Based on such understanding, since 2011 and led by Prof. Guan, teachers from the College of Mechanical Engineering, College of Electrical Engineering and Control Science, College of Chemical Engineering, and College of Safety Science and Engineering have formed a teaching and research team for interdisciplinary integration and collaborative training of students, forming a set of multi-faceted and three-dimensional teaching systems with engineering cases, professional teaching materials, and practical teaching.
After the establishment of the interdisciplinary teaching and research team, students are trained to master the theory, knowledge, and skills of two or more majors with actual engineering projects as the carrier and around the demand of engineering design and management. While improving students’ ability of engineering design and teamwork, students will be fostered to become compound engineering talents with interdisciplinary awareness and innovative spirit.
Exploring Collaborative Education and Cultivating Compound Innovative Talents
Professional synergism and university-enterprise cooperation help talent cultivation to effectively meet market demand in order to enhance students’ employment competitiveness and innovation skills. Scientific research is an important part of the university and an important carrier for talent cultivation, so the team sets engineering projects from enterprises as graduation project topics for students to select.
During their sophomore and junior years, students who enter the interdisciplinary graduation project team through double selection are usually able to complete a graduation project independently after two years of systematic training and teacher guidance. Prof. Guan’s team also set a mandatory rule for the students, that is, the students of the higher level must explain the corresponding knowledge points to the students entering the team in the following year while completing their own projects.
Improving Engineering Teaching and Adopting the Teaching Mode Based on Real Situations
Through the intercrossing, penetration, and integration among different disciplines, Prof. Guan’s team has built up an integrated mode of the “fundamental practical ability cultivation platform”, the “professional skills and engineering practical ability cultivation platform” and the “innovation ability cultivation and practice platform”. Under such a cultivation model, students are equipped with six competencies in basic experiments, design, preliminary engineering concepts and so on - and at the same time - their competencies in engineering innovation, academic integration and collaborative innovation are enhanced.
In line with the requirements of the hierarchical, modular and progressive teaching mode, the progressive experimental teaching mode of “basic experiments - professional experiments - engineering practical training - innovation experiments” has been constructed, and the practical teaching mode of “optional projects and rolling wave planning” has greatly improved students’ engineering practical ability. With the transformation project of scientific and technological achievements as the carrier and the manufacturing process of chemical products as the main task, a training environment closely integrated with actual production has been established, and joint guidance with the company has been provided, allowing students to integrate professional knowledge of chemical engineering and process, process equipment and control engineering, automation and safety engineering with real situations under the three-dimensional engineering training mode of interdisciplinary integration. Therefore, the change from focusing on knowledge transfer to emphasizing on comprehensive ability cultivation has been realized.
