only strengthening the design, but also their communications skills. Fourth, the duration allows the students to take the design to a higher level of quality than a conventional one or two semester sequence would allow. Since quality is an essential element of any aerospace product, this experience is valuable to their future careers. Scheduled for publication this summer by Springer Publishing is Rethinking Engineering Education, The CDIO Approach, a book detailing the CDIO process. The worldwide expansion of CDIO will continue, with more universities from China, Europe, and the Middle East about to join. The most important progress is taking place in the classroom and teaching workspaces, where every day students and faculty are working to achieve the desired learning. Edward Crawley is the Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department and is former head of the Department. He is a founder and principal leader of the CDIO Initiative. Professor Crawley acknowledges the contributions made to this article by colleagues within the Department, and at participating universities worldwide. Additionally, underlying contributions of educational scholars, and those in industry, working tirelessly to communicate their needs, are equally important. He may be reached at crawley@mit.edu
CDIO in Aero-Astro
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