Learning structures of CDIO based projects in contexts of Demola

Academia plays a main role in knowledge discovery and dissemination of knowledge. Amongst the fundamental reasons behind university education lies preparing students to use and contribute with that knowledge within contexts of industry, as well as society in large. We here see three types of actors, i.e., universities, students, and industry, which by several reasons all are gained by close cooperation already in university education. Quite often though we see a gap between education and possible student recruitment. Here, the value of being employable increases through work based projects supported by education. Even though we can see willingness according such kind of cooperation from both academia and industry, experiences show that there are barriers towards actually implementing this. That may in turn depend on common lack of knowledge on how to establish university-industry connections, and how to negotiate on student involvement, ownership of work, etc. Conclusions therefore show a need for an established organization that mediates between academia and industry, and that have well developed structures for project workflow, project result ownership, etc. Demola may here have that role as an award winning platform for industry driven projects with focus on students. Demola provides a win-win-win relationship between university, students, and industry, and has clear structures for cooperation between those. Experiences have shown that Demola is promising as a mediator, as well as a provider of multi-disciplinary industry close projects, where those may be plugged into educational programs in suitable ways. This contribution will provide an overview of Demola as a platform for industry close student projects. Demola may furthermore be used as a platform for research projects. Experiences will here be covered as a concrete example on a Demola student project. Moreover, learning outcomes in contexts of CDIO Syllabus, evaluations, and corresponding CDIO-standards, will be presented