Implementing a Cornerstone Design Thinking Course in First Year Civil Engineering

Cornerstone design courses offer engineering students the opportunity to experience a meaningful design project from the early undergraduate semesters. Although cornerstone design has been a reality for many years in several institutions, it is still not practiced in numerous regions and schools. This paper analyses the pilot implementation of a cornerstone design course in Brazil. The first-year cohort of 173 civil engineering students was divided into four classes, three of which took a standard lecture-based introduction to engineering course, while one class (43 students) experienced the cornerstone design course. The assessment was made both quantitatively, through a pre-post survey, and qualitatively, by analyzing students' reports, class observations, and interviews at various moments of the course. Quantitative results demonstrated that the pilot program had a limited impact. The cornerstone course was successful at some points (such as electrical components technical skills, prototyping, and motivation with engineering). However, its potential reported from the literature was not fully obtained. Based on the data gathered, a set of lessons learned from the experience was elaborated as a guideline for future cornerstone implementations. The paper contributes to the cornerstone design literature by reporting an in-depth analysis of a cornerstone course application in a diversified context and country.