IMPACT projects at the CSE department
Computer Science and Engineering
Introduction
The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at Chalmers is alive with research activity, characterised by its high quality and breadth of scope. Our research ranges from software to hardware, with a vibrant interplay between theory and practice, and interactions with many branches of science and engineering. When it comes to technology we’re right there at the cutting edge. The department has a truly international flavour, with teachers, researchers and PhD students from 30 different countries. This forges a dynamic and open minded research environment, and we have research groups of international repute in many fields. We offer the following six international Master's programmes:
- Integrated Electronic System Design: "Why does a cellphone run out of battery?"
- Networks and Distributed Systems: "Getting 100 computers to work together in vehicles of the future"
- Secure and Dependable Computer Systems: "Can you trust computers?"
- Computer Science: Algorithms, Languages and Logic: "How does Google find the links so quickly?"
- Software Engineering and Technology: "Why does software crash?"
- Interaction Design: "Creating the interactive systems of tomorrow!"
The CSE department has led 10 pedagogical IMPACT-projects (summing up to over 3M SEK) over three years. The projects can be sorted into three themes: Collaboration, Programme development and Diversity & internationalisation.
Collaboration
With six Master's programmes and hundreds of students, we have spent quite some effort on collaboration in several dimensions. We have worked on
- collaboration between Master's programmes, developing shared courses both in the compulsory and the elective part of the programmes;
- collaboration between the Master's and the doctoral education levels, identifying and developing the overlapping curriculum;
- collaboration between academia and industry, inviting companies, teachers and students to Master's thesis project generation workshops;
- collaboration between teachers within and between teching teams.
The subprojects are
- 2007; CollabCSE; Collaboration between CSE Master's programmes
- 2008; CollabIESD; Collaboration for programme development
- 2009; UELF; Increased support for students, teachers and companies in the Master's thesis process
Programme development
We have also worked on pedagogy and didactics in terms of course and programme development within these three projects:
- 2007; ProgreCSE; Pedagogical Progression for the CSE Master Curriculum
- 2008; SolveIT; Concepts for Problem-Solving Training on Different Levels
- 2009; ChiC; Chalmers Interaction Design Challenge
The first project enabled three of the programmes to spend extra time (in workshops, course and programme development) on adopting the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) concept. The second project focussed on effective learning for heterogeneous student groups and on improving students' problem-solving skills. The third project is about a project course performed together with another university.
Diversity & internationalisation.
With around 40% of our Master's students coming from abroad, the diversity aspects become very apparent. We have run four projects within this theme:
- 2008; Diversity@EDIT - the quality of being different
- 2009; Diversity+@EDIT - the quality of being different
- 2009; StuMP; Study trips for Master's programme development
- 2009; RNIMPS; Recruitment Network for International Master Programme Students
Diversity, or different points of view, is a powerful pedagogical tool which can lead to deeper learning and better coverage of a subject. But too much diversity leads to confusion and misunderstandings. We have developed rules, guidelines and recommendations for those aspects of diversity we have had problems with earlier. We are also using study trips to learn from successful programmes at other universities and we are building a network of contacts for long-term recruitment, to counter the upcoming fees for higher education in Sweden.
Important results- methods - connect to IMPACT's goals
The best results for our IMPACT projects are ...
Future development - Long-term perspective implication
The CSE department has with IMPACT's help improved the quality and long-term competitiveness of our Master's eduction ...
Conclusions - recommendations for the future
In the future we want to ...
Project table
| Year | Acronym | kkr | Project title |
| 2007 | CollabCSE | 540 | Collaboration between CSE Masters programmes |
| 2008 | CollabIESD | 420 | Collaboration for programme development |
| 2009 | UELF | 200 | Increased support for students, teachers and companies in the Master's thesis process |
| 2007 | ProgreCSE | 540 | Pedagogical Progression for the CSE Master Curriculum |
| 2008 | SolveIT | 420 | Concepts for Problem-Solving Training on Different Levels |
| 2009 | ChiC | 200 | Chalmers Interaction Design Challenge |
| 2008 | Diversity@EDIT | 300 | Diversity@EDIT - the quality of being different |
| 2009 | Diversity+@EDIT | 150 | Diversity+@EDIT - the quality of being different |
| 2009 | StuMP | 200 | Study trips for Master's programme development |
| 2009 | RNIMPS | 100 | Recruitment Network for International Master Programme Students |
Total amount granted by IMPACT: 3070 kkr = 540+540+420+300+420+200+200+100+200+150 kkr
Student count: HT 2008: ~300 M1 and ~220 M2 (M1 = first year Master, M2 = in the sencond year)
The CSE Master level education produced ~456 HST and ~393 HPR during 2008.
Thus, IMPACT provides around 2k SEK / student / year. (The total MSc education budget at CSE is around 55 kkr / student.)