INTERVIEW 10 Years 4TU.CEE ‘Innovating engineering education for tomorrow’s engineer’

II - Emerging practical frameworks: ‘Education innovation is beginning to pay off’

For ten years now, 4TU.CEE has focused on innovating engineering education. It’s a question of trial and error - just as in other design processes. What is already going well? How does this translate into practice? And what still needs to be done? Four experts (see text box) shed light on this, in the second part of our interview series celebrating 10 years of 4TU.CEE.

The innovation of engineering education is well underway, as we read in the first story in this series. The four TUs are working together on new models of engineering education and are already applying them in different places. So what is the current state of progress? Is there any perceptible impact yet?

Dealing with uncertainty

Nina Bohm, an engineering graduate of TU Delft, completed her PhD in 2024 on a topic that also touches on the social and behavioural sciences – as well as philosophy. Her dissertation is entitled ‘Educating Uncertainty. How students and teachers deal with uncertainty in transdisciplinary courses on urban sustainability’.

“The future is by definition uncertain,” Bohm explains, “but it’s all the more true for engineers. Not only society and its challenges are changing, but also the engineer’s tools and methods – for instance, as a result of AI. In both areas, it is difficult to predict what will happen exactly. How will people deal with those changes? How does this affect their learning process? And what do they need, in order to keep growing professionally?”

Who

Nina Bohm is a postdoctoral fellow at Utrecht University. Her research focuses on renewing sustainability education. During her 4TU PhD research (TU Delft, 2024), she investigated how engineers (students and professionals) deal with uncertainty.

Perry den Brok is professor of Education and Learning Sciences (ELS) at Wageningen University. He studies educational innovation in higher education, innovative learning environments, teacher professionalisation and teacher learning. He was involved in 4TU from the very beginning and served as chair of the 4TU Centre for Engineering Education (4TU.CEE) until 2024.

Kristina Edström is associate professor of Engineering Education Development at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. She was also appointed professor of Innovation in Engineering Education at TU Delft in 2024. Since 2014, she has served on the Advisory Board of 4TU.CEE.

Matthijs van Dijk is professor of design at TU Delft. He is founder and owner of the consulting firm Reframing Studio. This agency unravels patterns in future social systems and thus offers options for action for a transformation to an alternative future.

Previously overlooked

One of Bohm’s supervisors is Perry den Brok, professor of Education and Learning Sciences at Wageningen University. “Nina’s subject is incredibly important,” he emphasises. “In all innovations, including in education, we are used to focusing on mechanisms, characteristics, criteria... and much less on the emotional side. What does a certain development do to people? This uncertainty, experienced by everyone to some extent, is a very important factor. That had never really been studied properly before.”

Bohm discovered certain patterns in the way in which engineers – both students and teachers – respond to uncertainties. “A first reaction is: asking for help – a very human response. Secondly, I found that people are managing themselves, especially their brain, remarkably actively in times of uncertainty. For example, balancing work and relaxation, and balancing cognitive work and things like sports or going out. And finally, I noted success factors that contribute to people developing effectively: flexibility, perseverance, but also: relativism. Maintaining confidence in your profession and in science also requires that you approach it critically and with a certain lightness.” These findings are already finding their way into the teaching practice, says her supervisor Den Brok. “In her final chapters, Nina proposed a framework that describes the various aspects of uncertainty, and also indicates which actions can be associated with them. I am already getting a lot of questions about this from the teaching field: how does this work, how can we start applying this?”

Role in the world

Bohm and Den Brok also mention other uncertainties that engineers are increasingly confronted with, including social complexity, cultural differences and diversity. Den Brok: “But also the individualisation of education: students simply have ‘choice stress’. They have to meet more and more requirements. And they are not only trained to be able to work technically, but also in policy, companies, advisory functions...”

Bohm adds: “Therefore university courses should focus much more on developing your own profile, on student well-being, and on alternative ways of learning. And it should pay attention to philosophical questions: what is your role in the world? How can you get to know yourself better, develop to the best of your ability, and position yourself in the world? This is what should be addressed much more.”

Different roles

Design expert Matthijs van Dijk, professor at TU Delft and founder of consultancy firm Reframing Studio, wholeheartedly agrees. Commissioned by 4TU, he designed a vision on eight different roles that engineers may play in the world (see text box below). “Education should follow a framework like that,” he believes. “Knowledge of those eight roles gives you much more control over your choices, and a sense of agency over your professional life.”

Bohm adds: “Lecturers also face very different challenges. How do you test those non-technical skills? How do you ensure that you and your classes continue to develop, while traditionally you are mainly judged on your scientific output?” Fortunately, there are more and more new forms of recognition and rewarding of academics and teaching in particular, all three experts note. More and more guidance and leadership trajectories are emerging – and the concept of ‘lifelong learning’ is gaining ground.

Fantastic progress

Kristina Edström, Swedish engineering education reformer and now also professor at TU Delft, has been involved with 4TU from the very beginning, and has served on the 4TU.CEE Advisory Board since 2014. How does she see the developments during that period? “I think the progress has been absolutely fantastic”, Edström says without hesitation. “The concept of 4TU is truly unique. Collaborating at a national level, instead of competing with each other, is something you don’t see in many countries.” With a laugh: “In Sweden, we haven’t managed to do that yet.”

4TU.CEE has an international reputation, according to Edström. “The centre strengthens each of the four universities, but also contributes to the image of the Netherlands as a country with innovative engineering education. The centre has so much legitimacy, also internationally. The Dutch are always prominently visible at international conferences, demonstrating the success of the 4TU concept.”

Exchange

As a member of the Advisory Board, Edström has seen the academic successes emerge. “The first PhD students recently obtained their doctorates within 4TU.CEE,” she says. “Ten years ago, this was almost science fiction. I was so happy to congratulate Nina Bohm after her defense. It really felt like a milestone.”

Still, the capacity-building in the form of the newly graduated PhDs is just the tip of the iceberg, as Edström puts it. “The number one success factor has always been the buy-in from faculty. Teachers get inspiration and support from 4TU.CEE to enhance education. They get confirmation: you’re on the right track, these are sources and examples, and this is a community with shared interests. There is a good online infrastructure for sharing resources, and activities for exchanging ideas and experiences. Hundreds and hundreds of teachers have already participated and benefited.”

Innovation Map

Perry den Brok also notices concrete changes within 4TU.CEE. “Online, for example, you have the Innovation Map, a collection of educational innovations from which colleagues can draw inspiration and information. And at the institutions there are various education innovation funds, often led by, or in collaboration with CEE . They help lecturers, for example, to experiment with challenge-based and transdisciplinary education. More and more lecturers are participating, and these lines are increasingly present in the curriculum.”

Nina Bohm: “Everyone has a role. I see that as a positive: engineers are by definition people who like to be ahead of the pack, improve things, try things out. They are open to new experiences and are not afraid of change. That helps enormously, in this context.”

“The challenge is: how do you get everyone, even any ‘grumpy professors’, on board?” says Kristina Edström. “4TU.CEE has traditionally focused on the frontline, by stimulating innovation and innovators. The question is how to influence the broad mainstream: how can everyone enhance their education? How do you stimulate, motivate and support the people for whom this does not come naturally? It means looking at new forms of recognition and award, something in which the Netherlands is also leading the way but at the same time there is still a lot to gain.”

Creative thinking

Bohm and Den Brok draw inspiration from the research they do. Bohm: “This research has made me very enthusiastic about the role of innovative education in enabling major societal transitions. It has also made me optimistic: this type of research leads to concrete things that can be used immediately. In this field, too, it turns out that ‘research by design’ is a valuable concept.”

Den Brok: “This research has given my creative thinking a boost. And I think it’s wonderful that the outcomes are a great tool for teachers. That’s also what I want to transmit to colleagues: that a ‘research by design’ approach can yield very useful results. And a lot of fun and optimism.”

A vision on lifelong learning: Distinguishing different roles as an engineer

Design expert Matthijs van Dijk is a professor at TU Delft and founder of design consultancy Reframing Studio. 4TU.CEE engaged this agency to help develop a new educational vision for ‘The Engineer of the Future’. “I suggested the design approach ‘Vision in Design’ that I developed with a colleague,” says Van Dijk. “Together we set up an ambitious project to investigate which roles of an ‘Engineer of the Future’ are meaningful for our society. The guiding question is: how can you create clarity in a very complex, ‘uncertain’ future, so that you can shape your education accordingly?”

“First you map out which ‘conditions’ influence the future relationship between society and engineers. Economic conditions, psychological, philosophical, pedagogical, etcetera. You distil these conditions from reports, interviews with experts and scientific research. The interaction between all these conditions – expressed in a new framework – provides insights into a diversity of roles that engineers can fulfill in the future.”

“The framework that we developed together with 4TU.CEE reflects three distinct patterns that we found in all conditions. Firstly, how you identify with the engineering task you are working on? Do you do that from a connection with ‘the physical phenomena’ or with the challenges that (will) play a role in society? Secondly, whether you base your engineering decisions on ‘a scientific morality’ or on a collective ‘good feeling’. Psychosocial processes in decision-making are playing an increasingly important role in our search for truth. The negative side is: the more you repeat something, the more ‘true’ it becomes. And thirdly, the difference between the short and long term. Working on something that has to function tomorrow requires different development methods.”

“The mutual interaction between these three patterns, each with its two perspectives, creates completely new visions of the role of engineer. There are eight different combinations. Eight ways to do what is meaningful for society, and thus to develop yourself as an engineer: Origineering, Swarmineering, Engagineering, Ingraineering, Tinkineering, Perfectioneering, Imagineering and Fundamentaneering.”

“If you know that, as a student, then you can look for the role that suits you best. Education must be geared towards that. It is very important that education aligns with who you are and how you see your role in the world around you. Therefore these eight existing roles should be made explicit in education, to teachers and students. And then there is specific knowledge that belongs to each of those roles, for example about physical phenomena, about psychosocial decision-making processes, and about long-term development methods.”

“What does it look like in practice now? Yes, we are focussed on societal challenges. That’s a good thing. But we’re shifting our attention away from the basis: the connection with the physical phenomena. We shouldn’t just be throwing out the baby with the bathwater. In this context, knowledge about decision-making and (fast or slow) development methods is crucial. In my opinion, this merits more attention in the TU curricula.”

“Incidentally, if you have chosen one role, that does not mean that you will still feel happiest with that ten years from now. This framework gives you the tools to change roles. In fact what we’re saying is: you can use this knowledge and this framework as a means to shape your ‘lifelong learning’ process. This approach gives you much more control over your choices, a sense of agency over your professional life.”

“Last year we started a pilot with this at TU Delft. The intention is that the results will also flow to the wider 4TU community. But implementation will take time, and that’s OK. It’s about showing what is possible. About expanding people’s field of vision. I really do feel that we have created something very fundamental, and something that is timeless. We hope to gradually get more and more people involved.”

Interview series to celebrate Ten Years 4TU.CEE

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, 4TU.CEE is publishing a three-part interview series in the course of 2024-2025. In each interview, experts from within and outside of 4TU share their views and insights on various relevant themes. In this second edition: the impact of innovation in engineering education.

The 4TU Centre for Engineering Education (4TU.CEE) is celebrating its tenth anniversary. 4TU.CEE is the centre of expertise for teachers and scientists with questions and ambitions in the domain of Engineering Education at the four universities of technology in the Netherlands (in Wageningen, Delft, Twente and Eindhoven).

4TU.CEE aims to gather, develop and implement up-to-date expertise in engineering education. New insights in the field of education are implemented and the effectiveness of the improvements is monitored and analysed. The expertise and experiences are shared among all four universities.