Overview for Research and Development of “Spiral” Engineering Education Program

In this paper, we introduce spiral engineering education program of Innovation Center for Research and Engineering Education (ICREE) which has been founded since 2005 in order to carry out engineering education for undergraduate and graduate students in Utsunomiya University. This program is different from piled up educational program which has been carried out usually in university. ICREE has presented several kinds of original lectures for students. At first, problem-based learning program for freshmen is adopted as a practical lecture. Groups composed of students are required to grapple with a given problem through discussion and research within each group, for which there can be more than one solution. It is necessary for students to find out a solution of their own by trying various strategies and approaches. ICREE gives a series of lecture for sophomore students. Skilled engineers in industries are invited to give a talk to students on such topic as company organization, product development, and related technologies. Students are able to have a glimpse of innovative activities in the industries through skilled engineers. ICREE also provides students with internship programs, in which the students work together with employee of company for a short period and are expected to obtain first-hand experiences in engineering, so that they will recognize the meaning and values of what they have to learn professional lectures in university. These educational systems mentioned above have been performed linking with professional subjects of department, as if it were a spiral staircase.