Engineering education curriculum: innovations to get a more flexible and dynamic course

The Engineering Faculty of the Catholic University of Santos has conceived and applied the project named "Science and Technological Introductory" that has the main goal to create generations of good engineers and also researchers. It is a new kind of education, in which the students have to develop projects from the first year of the course. The projects are individual. The students have a professor/advisor and their projects are presented in a congress that happens at the end of every year. This scheme of education added by lab works give the future engineers the knowledge and skills to perform definitively in the new world work market besides contributing to the advancement of science and technology. In the new phase of the project in 1999, the coordinating team has created the "pre-course"-a preliminary course when the students who are initiating the first year have a whole week of classes. They have classes of some subjects that will help them to perform better during the engineering course. It takes place during the weeks that precede the beginning of the course. All the years of experience in this course have showed the importance of preparing the students to be more confident about their knowledge and about themselves. This course provides the students with a new vision and a new attitude facing engineering in the changing world.