Engaging Undergraduate Students in Research through Active Learning

Ingenuity and curiosity are characteristics that define engineers. The need to understand the world and how things work is vital to be motivated to innovate, create, and transform the world that surrounds us. Universities have the responsibility and commitment to prepare engineering professionals to be able to face the challenges of our rapidly changing world by preparing them with a set of competencies (knowledge, abilities, attitudes, and values). These competencies include both disciplinary and transversal competencies, such as critical thinking, the ability to solve complex problems, communication, the ability to learn by themselves, and creating innovative solutions with consideration of global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors. This study presents the engagement of undergraduate engineering students in research work through active learning during their capstone project at their last semester of their undergraduate program. Students from Industrial and Systems Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, and Sustainable Development Engineering programs worked on research projects linked with external partners. The study presents how these projects were generated and planned, the projects characteristics, the projects results, and the impact this research experience had on the students. The research projects delivered the desired outcomes and provided students with a valuable learning experience, showing them their potential, and motivating them to pursue postgraduate studies and innovation and development professional roles.