Elective Projects Course: Realizing the Academic Interests of Students

Even before entering to university and during their engineering studies, many students have personal interests related to different areas, which are not necessarily covered by the theoretical or practical courses. These topics of interest to students are a great opportunity to start working as projects, even from the first years of the program and with the help and support of some professors, they would contribute to strengthen their skills as engineers. Electronics Engineering program at the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia, decided to open an elective course called Special Projects on Electronics Engineering, in which the students, with the guidance of the professor, define the projects to be carried out under the CDIO approach. Through the process of conceiving-designing-implementing products, processes, and systems; students develop a project of their own interest related to electronic engineering. The idea of this course was originated as an alternative of academic recognition of the work done by the students linked to the research groups. Currently, the class has been structured in such a way that at the end of the course students must submit the functional prototype of their project, attaching to document, tutorial, video or poster to socialize and give visibility of the work done. The document is structured as follows: first, it details the structure of the course and the learning outcomes. Then, the methodology and the competencies that will be developed are shown. After that, the projects of some students are presented. Finally, lessons learned, and conclusions are given.