[ieee 2011 ieee global engineering education conference (educon) - amman, jordan...

“Hour of Creativity”: an agenda to foster creativity and innovation in the students of engineering

Varghese Panthalookaran

IEEE Member, Professor and Dean of Research

Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology Kochi, India

[email protected]

Abstract— Creativity and innovation are prerequisites of a successful engineering career. It equips an engineer to contribute to the sustainable technical development of the contemporary world with globalized challenges. Hence, it is imperative to train the students of engineering in engineering creativity and technical innovation. However, the constraints of a conventional curriculum, which lay excessive emphasis on formal instruction, often leave little room for training in engineering creativity. Additionally, the time pressure exerted by the conventional curriculum on students, adversely affects the learning environment and the ecosystem suitable for creativity and innovation. The concept of “Hour of Creativity” developed at Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology is meant to overcome these hurdles. An hour per week is chalked out from the academic schedule of the students, exclusively for creative and critical thinking and to foster discovery and innovation. The events and programs of the “Hour of Creativity” are so designed that they directly contribute to nurturing creative mind and innovative spirit of the students. In order to render additional motivation to the students, the “Hour of Creativity” is coupled with research mentoring of the students to identify, develop and evaluate the concepts of their own Undergraduate Projects, an academic requirement for Bachelor degree in Technology.

Keywords- Engineering creativity, technical innovation, undergraduate education, undergraduate project, undergraduate research

I. INTRODUCTION Engineering is a creative career. Success of engineers in

their profession depends radically on the level and amount of creativity and innovation they exhibit in developing sustainable engineering concepts, components and systems, engineering design and their implementation. Though creativity is popularly considered as in-born qualities of a genius, they can be nurtured and developed through continuous training. The conventional engineering curricula tend to neglect this aspect of engineering education, rendering over emphasis on formal instruction and assessment schemes promoting students to reproduce the already available engineering solutions, rather than equipping them to produce novel and sustainable solutions to the contemporary technical problems.

Irrespective of this general neglect, there had been various attempts in different Universities to rejuvenate the engineering education by incorporating training programs and specialized

courses into the existing curriculum. An undergraduate senior-level course designed and introduced by the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Florida to assist creative problem solving ability of students is reported in [1]. The authors are inspired by the formal training program in creativity practiced at General Electric since 1937, which has explicitly reaped excellent results, in the development of the curriculum. A two semester freshman design sequence, called “Creative Engineering I & II Sequence” developed at Prairie View A&M University is reported in [2]. This course supports the students to identify, develop and communicate their Freshman level design projects. Different courses developed for teaching creativity and entrepreneurial thinking at University of Virginia is reported in [3]. The authors set their ultimate goal as to require original creative work as part of every engineering course. A dedicated course in creative problem management introduced into the Computer Science curriculum of the University of Helsinki is reported in [4]. The authors believe that teaching creative problem solving is at the same time research training. Design of a course on “Introduction to Literature Review and Proposal Writing” for the first year graduate students of the University of Iowa meant to instill “idea creation” and critical thinking through a practice of brainstorming and critical thinking is reported in [5].

Few other authors follow the concept of integrating the training in creativity and innovation into different courses and programs of the existing curriculum. Establishment of a creative educational environment, in which students enjoy freedom and respect and are driven primarily by intrinsic motivation, is described in [6]. Similar effort of creating positive ambient in view of enhancing students’ creativity and critical thinking is reported in [7]. Here, the students are promoted to express themselves, explore problems on their own, work in teams, and shape their own answers. Here the process is highlighted over results. An approach of “teaching discovery” by way of teaching different courses is presented in [8]. While “teaching-discovery approach” is relatively time consuming in comparison to traditional lecture mode, it is worth attempting owing to the advantage it has in nurturing creativity and innovation. Strengthening of education in the direction of invention by transiting from “reproductive teaching” to “creative” one is reported in [9]. Introduction of creative-thinking training into basic courses and the professional courses of industrial design classes is reported in

978-1-61284-643-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE 2011 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON) – "Learning Environments and Ecosystems in Engineering Education"

April 4 - 6, 2010, Amman, Jordan

Page 612

[10]. Teaching of the process of creativity in the engineering class room is reported in [11]. A method of evaluation of creative thinking is suggested in [12]. Here fluency, flexibility and elaboration are identified as criteria of evaluation with emphasis on the first two variables.

The current paper reports a unique program envisaged at Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology (RSET), India, to instill creativity and innovation in the students of engineering. This program is accessible to all students of RSET throughout the four years of their study on Bachelor degree in Technology (B.Tech.). It consists of an hour called “Hour of Creativity” per week dedicated entirely for creative reflections on the current and relevant engineering and technical problems of interest. The program is designed to provide a thread of creativity that runs through the entire B.Tech program. It is graduated and streamlined to the academic requirement of the Undergraduate Project, systematically developing it through years. In this way students are enabled to creatively contribute to the area of their study on passing out, which instills sufficient self-confidence in them as they enter the professional career and acts as the initial capital for their life-long learning and research. The ultimate goal of regular practice of the “Hour of Creativity” is to develop a full-fledged course on “Engineering Creativity and Technical Innovation”, by developing a suitable curriculum for the same.

II. PROBLEM DEFINITION Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology (RSET) is a

self-financing engineering institution affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam/India. RSET currently runs five programs at undergraduate level and four programs at graduate level. Being an affiliated institution, RSET is obliged to follow the curriculum and student assessment schemes prescribed by the University, which do not always prove adequate to respond to the contemporary requirements on engineering education. The University expects the individual institution running different programs to compensate for such lacuna.

Presently, there exists no dedicated course to nurture engineering creativity and technical innovation within the curriculum prescribed by the Mahatma Gandhi University. The tight schedule of the University curriculum does not also allow conduct of a full-fledged course in this important area. The individual institutions are in search of suitable programs that can be accommodated to the prescribed curricula of the University, which may simultaneously contribute to the academic requirements of the University. The concept of “Hour of Creativity” is a result of such a search for a tailor-made program to train the students of the Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech.) of RSET in engineering creativity and technical innovation. This program can at the same time contribute to the systematic development of the Undergraduate Project, which is an academic requirement of B.Tech. students enrolled in the Mahatma Gandhi University.

III. DEVELOPMENT OF AN ECOSYSTEM FOR CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Prior to the development of the concept of “Hour of Creativity”, systematic attempts to develop suitable learning environment and ecosystem that promote creativity were

undertaken. It included identification of an inspiring philosophy, a role model for the practice of this philosophy, to inspire all different stakeholders of RSET. Further, popularization and promotion of research attitudes within the management, faculty and students is worked out. Innovative teaching methods were experimented and established. Appropriate student assessment methods were derived and the student hostels were provided with creative environment that catalyze the professional development of the students. The current session elaborates on the efforts undertaken to develop suitable learning environment and ecosystem that engender engineering creativity and technical innovation.

A. Inspiring Philosophy and Innovative Attitudes Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology (RSET)

inherits and cherishes a noble philosophy from one of the pioneering spirits of educational revolution in the state of Kerala, Bl. Kuriakos Elias Chavara, and co-founder of Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), the management of RSET. His holistic approach to the training of the students enjoined with a deeper sense of creativity and innovation is well-known. RSET considers itself as a “school”, to mean that it inherits a philosophy of engineering education and research – a philosophy that is derived from the pioneering spirit of the co-founder of CMI.

The very word, “Rajagiri” stands for “Hill of a King”. In tune with the name, the students of RSET campus are regarded as sharing this noble spirit, as future leaders of the vibrant democracy, India. They are regarded as preparing themselves to shoulder important responsibilities of the nation and the contemporary world. The teachers of RSET share in an important responsibility of training the future leaders. Hence, sufficient care is taken to ensure that the campus is impregnated with a positive attitude and a creative outlook. Such a mental framework and attitude contributes to the creation of a spiritual climate for creativity and innovation at RSET.

Both the inherited philosophy and positive attitudes abiding in the campus inspire different stakeholders of RSET to spend their time in a productive manner and to search for sustainable solutions to the contemporary technical problems. RSET keeps on developing this fabric of creativity and innovation in order to transform the campus into a locus of excellence in engineering education and research.

B. Inclusive Rresearch Structure Research is considered as an important parameter of

engineering education today. Following this contemporary trend, RSET considers itself as a community of research groups organized as Rajagiri Research & Consultancy Center (RRCC), which is operational since 2008. The faculties of RSET are ex-officio members of one or the other research groups of RRCC as faculty nuclei or as faculty associates. Similarly, the students of RSET gets associated with the faculty research groups either as student nuclei or as student associates. At present 38 such research groups are operational at RSET spreading over the seven departments, which include a good number of inter-departmental interdisciplinary research groups. The numbers of independent RRCC research groups currently operating at different departments are: Department of Electronics &



Page 613

Communication Engineering (6), Department of Computer Sciences & Engineering (6), Department of Applied Electronics & Instrumentation (4), Department of Electrical & Electronics Engineering (4), Department of Information Technology (2) Department of Basic Engineering (4), and Department of Basic Sciences & Humanities (6). Further, there are six interdepartmental and interdisciplinary research groups for RRCC.

The major task of RRCC research groups is to sustain the spirit of engineering creativity and technical innovation at RSET. Students of B.Tech. and M.Tech. are promoted to develop their Final Project in collaboration with the RRCC research groups.

Undergraduate Project development is streamlined as follows: The first year B.Tech. students are required to explore and identify the most current and relevant innovation in their own field of study in collaboration with one or the other RRCC research groups of their choice. The so called “Nano-Project” for B.Tech. students serves as an introduction to the innovative frontier activities in their own field of study. The student pairs are supposed to prepare a technical poster on that innovation and present it to a general gathering of the cross-section of RSET during the common coffee break at 10:30 am every day. Their performance would be evaluated based on pre-announced criteria, including skills of engineering and graphical design, technical presentation, and ability to handle queries of an audience, etc. This program is a daily feature of RSET organized within the frame-work of a Year Round Poster Competition (YRPC). It helps the REST community to update itself regularly with the most current and relevant innovation in all areas of teaching and learning conducted at RSET. It keeps the campus vibrant and impregnated with the most current concepts and creates suitable context for creative thinking and innovation.

The students of B.Tech. continue with the development of the Undergraduate Project in the second year by way of a “Micro-Project”, in the third year through a “Mini-Project” and in the fourth year with their Final Project [13]. At all levels of development of the Undergraduate Project, the student groups are mentored by RRCC research groups, enabling them to contribute to their field of study right from the entry point of their career upon the successful completion of the B.Tech. program.

The inclusive nature of the research structure does justice to the concept that research is an inalienable component of engineering education. It additionally creates an adequate environment for learning and an ecosystem that sustains engineering creativity and technical innovation.

C. Innovative Teaching Praxis RSET has also experimented with, implemented and

showcased some teaching praxis that has positively contributed to the sustainable professional development of the students of engineering [14]. The general direction of these efforts is to provide opportunities to the students to train themselves in the professional skills integrated to the classroom teaching. This approach is found to contribute simultaneously to the development of professional soft and hard skills of the students

as well as to the betterment of the academic results. This is presumably due to the fact that the teaching-learning process has in turn become lively engendering deeper student participation and catalyzing better comprehension.

A class of sixty students, for example, is organized into fifteen subgroups consisting of four students each, engineered in such a way that it simulates the real-world professional context of an engineer, absorbing all available plurality including that of gender, academic caliber and engineering career orientation. These teams called “winning teams”, work in a cooperative mode, ensuring academic success of all members of the team and as a team in different student assessment instances, including the final external examination organized by the affiliating university. The “winning teams’ also undertake regular practice in the engineering professional skills including teamwork, technical presentation and communication. For example “winning teams” presents a “two-minute review” of the previous lecture session in rotation towards the beginning, a “two-minute review” of the particular session towards the end, conducts review of different modules of teaching, prepares and writes the internal examinations. Their performance is continuously monitored in view of making the development in the professional skills a measurable. Through these exercises, the students develop simultaneously the engineering professional skills and at the same time improve the academic interest.

Innovative teaching-learning praxis also contributes positively to the shaping of a learning environment and ecosystem suitable for sustainable development in engineering creativity and technical innovation. The participatory mode of teaching-learning process also ensures that the students own the responsibility of their own professional development.

D. Appropriate Student Assessment Methods of assessment of the students can be effectively

utilized to communicate and to set direction of the professional development of the students. Acknowledging this possibility, some novel student assessment schemes were experimented, implemented and showcased. An appropriate student assessment method does not just evaluate the “reproduction” of the textbook knowledge, but also demands “production” of it and at the same time contribute to the professional development of the students.

Three major efforts were taken to devise appropriate student assessment methods to suit the requirement of training in creativity, innovation and professional development. The first approach was to provide a “Creativity Bonus for the student assignments. This approach has been practiced in the course on “Engineering Physics”. One of the themes of student assignments is to identify applications of a given concept of physics. The students are asked to search through the literature to identify the already developed areas and applications of the physical concept. On the top of it they can win “Creativity Bonus” of 20% based on their proposals of a deemed application. The bonus marks are awarded on the basis of the originality, imagination and practicality of the proposed novel application.



Page 614

The second effort was to devise assessment techniques that will motivate the students to update their knowledge in the area of their study. The Year-Round Poster Competition (YRPC) mentioned in Section C, is counted as an assignment in the course in Engineering Physics. The theme of the poster is the most current and relevant innovation in the area of study of the student. The interaction with the most current technical innovation taking place in the frontier areas of their study prepare the students to creatively contribute to the technological advancement at some point of time. Being incorporated into the student-assessment scheme, YRPC gives additional motivation to the students.

Finally, the student assessment methods are developed to incorporate the elements “cooperative learning” in the place of a “competitive learning”. Here, some relatively difficult questions, which usually demand discussions in groups, are given in the class tests. The “winning teams” are supposed to develop the best possible answer to those questions through discussions, which an individual student can write as answer to the question after discussion in the “winning team”. This approach provides a drastic change to the quality of ambient of the examination. It is found to remove the excessive psychological anxiety from the students for examinations and develop a new habit of being successful as a team in close resemblance with real world professional context. The individually written answers are found to reflect the signature of individual performance as well as the effectiveness of the team work. Since the effort here is not to “reproduce” an answer to the question, rather to develop it, the creativity of the individuals and the team is tested through this student-assessment scheme.

E. Creative Community Life Around 50% of RSET students are staying in large student

communities or student hostels. Major part of the hostel management, excepting for disciplinary measures is delegated to the students. A team of managers elected for a time period of one month, would manage the hostels based on salient principles of management, including the management of creativity of the students [15]. The management team for the month is expected to chalk out innovative programs to bring out the creative skills and talents of the students within the framework of a year-round competition in management. The best student management team in the year-round is awarded with attractive prizes, to provide extra-motivation for the students.

In short, efforts are taken to develop suitable learning environments and ecosystem suitable for creativity and innovation at RSET to prepare ground for training the students in engineering creativity and technical innovation. This is not a finished product, rather continuous efforts are employed to optimize and further tune the ecosystem to suit the ever-changing life situations and the demands on the engineering profession.

IV. THE CONCEPT OF “HOUR OF CREATIVITY” After preparing suitable ecosystem, the question of training

in creativity and innovation was taken up. It is a prelude to the development of the curriculum for an informal course on

“Engineering Creativity and Technical Innovation”. The concept of “Hour of Creativity” evolved in three years through various phases.

A. Phases of Evolution of the Concept The original idea regarding “Hour of Creativity” was to

nurture the artistic and literature skills, providing them an open hour for creative expressions of the students. This effort has produced rich fruits in the form of an album of creative artistic and literature works. The difficulty in locating adequate space between the tight academic schedules, however, diminished the possibility of getting free hours for such extra-curricular activity. On the other hand, it was observed that there exist some redundant activities running through the academic programs, which may be substituted with creative activities to find space for programs that promote engineering creativity and technical innovation. “Reduce bureaucracy and introduce creativity” was the slogan for such an effort.

In the large student living communities, like student hostels, “Day of Creativity” was often observed, especially during long weekends, to draw the attention of the students away from redundant works towards creative works. On such “Days of Creativity”, students are determined to engage in activities with good amount of creativity, not just satisfying with the repetitive daily chores. To help themselves to be accountable, students used to submit a proposal for the creative work they wish to engage at the beginning of the day and submit a report of the creative work completed at the end of the day to the mentor of the program. This exercise is found to drive home to the students the attractiveness and usefulness of engaging in creative occupation rather than remaining idle or doing something redundant. The creative loading of self was appreciated far better than the burden of academic chores.

B. The Conduct of the “Hour of Creativity” The concept of an informal “Hour of Creativity” per week

for every students of RSET is a derivative from a rather localized and simple experiments mentioned above. In order to shed the resemblance of an extra-curricular activity, the “Hour of Creativity” is planned to be directed to the Undergraduate Project of the students of B. Tech. Students are generally given a time frame of six months for implementing and reporting their Undergraduate Project. At RSET the students are promoted to conceptualize, plan and implement the Undergraduate Projects in a time span of three years. The student groups are mentored by the faculty research groups of RRCC continuously through the years to facilitate the Undergraduate Project well dispersed in time. The “Hour of Creativity” is designed in line with this effort in such a way that the students are given time to ponder over the theme of their prospective Final Project with the support of the entire class.

The conduct of the “Hour of Creativity” as of now can be summarized as follows:

1) Initialization Session The “Hour of Creativity” starts with some exercises that

liberate the students’ mind from excessive stress and strain, calming it in such a way to prepare them to think freely and with a lot of imagination. Methods of Oriental Yoga, which the



Page 615

students are taught in the first year of their study is employed for this purpose. Yoga functions by regaining control of the thought process by controlling the breathing process.

Another type initialization is by way of creating a jovial mood through humorous wits. Free mood is found to be an ideal gestation ground for creativity. This liberates the mind of the students from the entanglement of stress or boredom making it tuned to creative occupation.

2) Problem-Definition Session After the initialization of the mind for creative occupation,

one of the student groups of the class is allowed to present an engineering problem they wish to solve through their Undergraduate Project as subject matter for further discussions. The group who presents the theme of deliberations of the “Hour of Creativity” provides necessary background information to initiate discussion.

The problem considered for brainstorming exercise in the next session can also be a current innovation taken place in the area of study of the student group. In this case preliminary information regarding the innovation is provided by the student groups who define the creative problem for the day.

3) Brainstorming Session In the brainstorming sessions students are allowed to freely

express their suggestions towards the solution to the presented engineering/technical problem. All opinions are allowed which are just rephrased by the facilitation in more universal terms, which is understood by all. The developed concepts are noted down and summarized and finalized during the session.

The results of the brainstorming are considered as row material for the final creative solution to the engineering problem. The ideas collected through brainstorming are arranged and developed into a creative solution of the given problem. The gaps of thinking are identified and are acknowledged and given for further research of the group who has defined the problem.

4) Evaluation Session The “Hour of Creativity” concludes with a short evaluation

session to grade the creativity and innovation expressed in the brainstorming session. The most creative suggestion is voted on and appreciated by the facilitator and the student group who posed the query.

The evaluation is made in three stages. 1) Self-evaluation: by the group who defined the problem. They state whether they are satisfied or happy with the creative solution emerged in the group discussion. 2) Group evaluation: students are asked to express their critique and appreciation on the quality of the creative solution and 3) Evaluation by the facilitator: the facilitator makes a concluding comment on the procedures and results of the “Hour of Creativity”.

V. DISCUSSION The “Hour of Creativity” is conceived as an agenda to

foster engineering creativity and technical innovation in the students. The creation of suitable context for the training in creativity is accomplished to a great extent. A positive and constructive context, vibrant with information on the most

current and relevant technical innovations is found to trigger the curiosity of the students and to prepare them for creative engagement. The students participated in the programs like, “Year-round Poster Competition” with grate zeal and fervor. Their connectivity with the different research groups of Rajagiri Research & Consultancy Center was rendered natural and it flourished in the course of time. This connectivity also led them to collaboration with these research groups to conceptualize and implement their Undergraduate Projects.

The efficacy of the model to enhance the creativity is yet to be established formally based on some statistical information, it being relatively new agenda being implemented at RSET. However, the immediate response of the student community is encouraging and promising. The students are currently sensitized to the need for training themselves in the creativity skills, which gives them an edge in the professional career as a result of implementation of the creativity training program. The implementation of the agenda also helps RSET to implement its vision to impart excellence in engineering education, research and service and thereby to achieve an edge among the providers of engineering education.

The preparation of curriculum for the course on “Engineering Creativity” is on the anvil. The response from the part of students and faculty is found to be promising and the program of “Hour of Creativity” is already implemented with the full support of all the stakeholders.

VI. OUTLOOK The final goal of the celebration of the “Hour of Creativity”

at RSET is to gradually develop the curriculum for a course on “Engineering Creativity and Technical Innovation”. The assumption behind the entire project is that by creating necessary ecosystem and providing sufficient opportunities, the students will naturally develop engineering creativity and technical innovation skills. Further reflections are necessary to optimize the ecosystem that supports creativity and innovation. The curriculum will also include introduction into the creative and innovative minds of the history of engineering and technology to identify the patterns of engineering creativity and technical innovation. The “Hour of Creativity” will remain as the practical session of this course.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The author wishes to acknowledge and thank the support of

the “Engineering Education Research Group” of Rajagiri Research and Consultancy Center (RRCC) in the conceptualization and implementation of some of the concepts developed in this paper. He also acknowledges the moral support of the management and faculty of Rajagiri School of Engineering & Technology for the smooth and regular conduct of the “Hour of Creativity”.

REFERENCES [1] B. E. Mathews and R. L. Bailey, “A course in creative problem solving,”

IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. E-8, No. 4, 1965, pp.85-90. [2] A. Warsame, P.O. Biney and J. O. Morgan, “Innovations in teaching

creative engineering at the freshman level,” 1995, Proceedings of ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Session 2C4, pp. 2C4.21-2c424.



Page 616

[3] L. G. Richards, “Stimulating creativity: teaching engineers to be innovators,” Proceedings of 28th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, Session S1D, 1998, pp. 1034-1039.

[4] E. Sutinen and J. Tarhio, “Teaching to identify problems in a creative way,” Proceedings of 31st ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2001, Session T1D, pp. T1D.8-T1D13.

[5] M. Johnson, “Expanding our students’ brain power: idea generation and critical thinking,” IEEE Antenna’s and Propagation Magazine, 2002, Vol. 44, No. 6, pp. 140-144.

[6] S. J. E. Christiano and M. R. Ramirez, “Creativity in the classroom: special concerns and insights,” Proceedings of 23rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 1993, Session 7C4, pp. 209-213.

[7] B. Mantilla, R. Foulds and M. Bergen, “Studio classes modelled on complex system theory in order to increase creativity and critical thinking,” Proceedings of the IEEE 30th Annual Northeast Bioengineering Conference, 2004, pp. 220-221.

[8] D. Wolaver, “Can discovery and intuition be taught?,” Proceedings of 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 2005, Session T2C, pp. T2C.21-T2C 26.

[9] A. Petrenko, “Ways of creative components improvement in the engineering education,” Proceedings of Modern Problems of Radio Engineering, Telecommunications, and Computer Science, 2006, TCSET 2006, Lviv-Slavsko, Ukraine, pp. 707-710.

[10] L. Lu and L. Ni, “A study on creative-thinking training that takes morphology as the core,” Proceedings of IEEE 10th International

Computer-aided Industrial Design and Conceptual Design, 2009, CAID and CD 2009, pp. 228-231.

[11] J. V. Masi, “Teaching the process of creativity in the engineering classroom,” Proceedings of 19th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 1989, Sessiion 16D4, pp. 288-292.

[12] L. Jiazeng, L. Yanbao and C. Yi, “Evaluating of creative thinking and creativity development at Southeast University, China,” Proceedings of 27th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 1997, Session T4H, pp. 576-579.

[13] V. Panthalookaran, “A model to facilitate undergraduate engineering research,” Proceedings of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition (IMECE2010), November 12-18, 2010, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

[14] V. Panthalookaran, “Cultivation of engineering soft-skills within the constraints of a prescribed curriculum,” 2009, Proceedings of ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition IMECE2009, 2009, November 13-19, Lake Buena Vista, Florida, USA.

[15] V. Panthalookaran and R. Binu, „Some models and methods to nurture general management skills in engineering students living in large residential communities,”Proceedings of ASME 10th Biennial conference on engineering systems design and analysis ESDA2010, 2010, July 12-14, Istanbul, Turkey.



17

[ieee 2011 ieee global engineering education conference (educon) - amman, jordan...

Documents