MUPIC – Multidisciplinary Projects in an International Context

MUPIC PROJECT Multidisciplinary Projects in an International Context

Florida Centre de Formació is taken part of a very interesting Erasmus+ project in terms of interactions and synergies between educational system and the business sector, the project MUPIC. Students from the partner universities will work together on an assignment from an industrial company. Their task will be to improve an existing product according to the company/customer needs. Student teams will include students from the field of engineering (industrial design), business management, and project management.

Due to its special characteristics, it could perfectly be implemented in the sector of vocational training education, since the main argument and purpose of the project is the close and continuous relationship that each student will have with the business world, by having to work on finding a solution to the challenge presented by the participating company.

The project aims to develop an online course for university students to train them to acquire the technical and personal competences, using innovative online methods in multidisciplinary teams.

The online course will contain modules on:

– Language and Intercultural communication
– Engineering design
– Project management
– Online communication and virtual teams

The online course will be accompanied by a glossary of industrial design terminology. A teacher’s guide will be developed to provide all the necessary information and instructions for the use of the online course after the project life time. Along with this online course, a course curriculum and a grid for students’ work evaluation in the project team will also be developed.

The course will be run twice during the project using a Moodle platform. For the initial run, the students will pilot both the contents of the course together with the evaluation grid of students work. In the second round, students will work within the revised online course.

Then, students will form groups during a face-to-face training, in which they will be given some assignments from external companies collaborating with the project. After the meeting, students will work on the assignment in virtual teams and multicultural environments; each student will have his/her own role in the team. Students will follow the online course modules as well as work on the assignment for approximately 8 months. After this period, students will have to meet face-to- face again; they will present their products and evaluate their work. Each team will also be given an evaluation based on the project evaluation grid.

Of course, taking into account the problems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, face-to-face meetings and meetings of students, teachers and companies have been taking place virtually, using online platforms. In fact, the first pilot course ended last May in an online version with total success of results, management, and participation.

The project has a duration of 36 months (01/09/2018 – 31/08/2021), with the participation of Florida Universitària of 2 teachers and one Project Manager. So far, end of 2020, have already been implemented the activities planned for the development of the online course (content of the modules, Moodle platform for access to the course by students, glossaries, activities proposed by companies, etc …), having already implemented and finalised the first course (September 2019 to May 2020). On behalf of Florida Universitària, 5 students participated (3 from ADE and 2 from Mechanical Engineering), who successfully solved the tasks assigned by the companies Skoda and Engel, from the Czech Republic.

Currently, MUPIC is starting and developing the second online course, with new groups of students. Florida Universitària has contributed 5 students, all from ADE, who will develop in international multidisciplinary groups new challenges proposed by two external Belgian companies: Desimone and Vesuvius. They will be working online together with students from the other partner universities of the project until May 2021, where they will have to present their solutions and will be finally evaluated.

The project is composed of the following partners:

  • University of West Bohemia (Coordinator, Czech Republic)
  • Florida Centre de Formació – Florida Universitaria (Spain)
  • Turku University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
  • University of Mons (Belgium)

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