Education Fellows

Bridging the Gaps in Electrical Engineering Education

My goal is to address the growing gap between conventional electrical engineering (EE) education and the practical implementation of interdisciplinary technologies. This project focuses on building three essential bridges: bridging the gap between secondary school and Bachelor (BSc) education, between BSc EE courses at TU Delft, and between BSc and MSc education.

The first step involves establishing an Electronics Makerspace in the EE department. This makerspace will facilitate hands-on learning experiences, connecting secondary school and bachelor education. This makerspace will yield engaging and creative content illustrating the practical uses of electronics. The aim is to create content that is challenging and fun, yet affordable and replicable to inspire students to pursue the projects further to develop personalized modifications. It will also serve as a platform for community outreach.

The second component focuses on developing projects that focuses on the intersection between courses in the EE curriculum. The most recent EE curriculum revision creates opportunities to integrate such activities and projects. The recent improvements we make not only enhances interdisciplinary education but also aims to create a more inclusive environment for students who come from underrepresentated backgrounds.

The third component aims to bridge the gap between BSc and MSc education by providing research opportunities for Bachelor students. This involves creating a project inventory on the Project Forum website and developing an Bachelor Research Handbook. These initiatives will increase student engagement, encourage research involvement, and promote the pursuit of Masters education.

Embedding the creation of learning communities in university education for a wider societal impact

I aim to establish learning communities in university education that have a significant impact on society. This project focuses on creating long-lasting and widespread communities and outreach programs that connect students, school teachers, pupils, and professional engineers. This facilitates collaboration and addressing real-life challenges. By utilizing student assignments as outreach materials, we bridge the gap between academia and the broader world, enhancing societal engagement.

The students receive comprehensive training in technical and non-technical skills, including engineering, communication, and diversity and inclusion values in line with the principles of Practising Professionalism Framework. This is key as our students will be the ones leading and building the organisations of tomorrow.

Introducing school pupils and teachers to new technologies and showcasing different facets of engineering plays a crucial role in promoting a more inclusive and welcoming atmosphere. The primary focus of my Educational Fellowship is on schools in Delft and Den Haag. This program is part of the offshore wind energy minor.

Enhancing Lab Courses: Fostering Scientific Inquiry

I aim to improve lab course quality and stimulate collaboration among introductory lab courses, jointly redesigning materials. After successfully redesigning the first-year physics lab course with a focus on inquiry and the minor introducing students to physics experimentation, I shared my research through scientific papers and conferences. My primary research goal is to enable secondary school and first-year university students to engage in scientific inquiry.

The awareness of limited learning outcomes in content-focused lab courses globally has shifted the emphasis towards scientific inquiry in introductory labs. Transforming or developing lab courses is ambitious, as teachers often excel in experimentation but lack pedagogical knowledge for efficient redesign while managing teaching commitments. I propose a collaborative approach to share teaching materials and establish common goals for inquiry-based learning. Open-ended experiments and cross-cutting concepts foster applicability across science subjects. This effort promotes collaboration, enhances lab course quality, and addresses challenges faced by educators.

Productive Failure for Engineers: Embracing Mistakes in Engineering Education 

I am focused on the theory and method of Productive Failure (PF), which promotes learning from mistakes in engineering education. In the field of engineering education, there is a pressing need to shift from the conventional Direct Instruction model to Productive Failure, prioritizing problem-solving before instruction.

At TU Delft's Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, my goal is to implement PF in the Understanding Product Engineering course and providing training for the teaching team. By doing so, I aim to enhance students' understanding, critical thinking, and problem-solving abilities. The current emphasis on correct answers and point accumulation hampers deep learning and fails to integrate theoretical knowledge into design projects. 

Through embracing PF, students will actively engage in collaborative problem-solving, reflect on their actions, and receive formative feedback from both teachers and peers. 

I will share the project outcomes through workshops, a dedicated blog, conference papers, and open educational resources. My intention is to enable other educators to benefit from my research and enhance engineering education across various institutions.

The Innovative project 

My objective is to address two interconnected challenges in engineering education programs. Firstly, I aim to cultivate an inclusive learning environment that caters to diverse learning styles, enabling students to achieve personalized learning objectives. Secondly, I strive to establish meaningful connections between different disciplines, stimulating the development of interdisciplinary skills and knowledge.

To achieve these goals, I will explore the interpretations of inter-, multi-, and mono-disciplinary skills and knowledge required by engineering students. Additionally, I will define and develop effective, focused, and affordable teaching formats for inter- and multidisciplinary engineering education.
My teaching approach builds upon successful methods such as problem-based learning and project-based learning, while incorporating original educational techniques. These approaches empower students to create their own pathways for achieving desired outcomes, promoting integrated learning instead of isolated disciplinary blocks.

The project's vision revolves around creating an inclusive learning environment and fostering interdisciplinary connections. Effective teaching formats for inter- and multidisciplinary engineering education will be realized through interactive workshops informed by survey results and research findings.