Picking low hanging fruits – Integrating interdisciplinary learning in traditional engineering curricula by interdisciplinary project courses

Abstract

Setting up integrated interdisciplinary study programs is complex and expensive. This case study presents specific interdisciplinary project courses of the Technische Universität Darmstadt as an alternative practice for integrating interdisciplinary learning in traditional engineering curricula. Relying on the experience from 22 project courses for first year students and 22 advanced design projects for master students, the authors exemplify that a sequence of interdisciplinary projects in the bachelor’s and master’s program leads to a systematical development of interdisciplinary competences: competence in interdisciplinary team work and problem solving in the bachelor’s projects and actual interface expertise for interdisciplinary design tasks in the master’s projects.