Restructuring engineering education in southern Brazil

The paper describes a Coalition Project for the reform of engineering education in the state of Santa Catarina, in the southern part of Brazil. New teaching/learning methodologies are conceived for the academic formation of a professional tuned up to the technological dynamic of his/her time and to the challenges to the engineering profession anticipated for the coming century. The approaches described are the backbone of a project for the restructuring of engineering education, led by the Federal University of Santa Catarina. The project unfolds over three major actions. The first is connected with the election of engineering as a career. A methodology for the search of talents is proposed; it is based upon the Synthesis of Multiple Intelligence and is meant to be taken to high school students as a motivating and probing contact with the challenges of the engineering profession. The second action, that complements the first, involves the early exposure of engineering students to engineering themes and problems during the first part of the course. The study of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, etc. shall be coupled to an initiation at engineering problems and methods. This kind of approach and its methodology should facilitate the insertion of the students into the context of engineering problems from the beginning of his/her academic trajectory. Finally, the last action should be developed at the level of the applied courses.