Since this academic year, Tecnun, the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, is part as a center partner of the CDIO initiativeinitiative, an organization made up of the 120 best engineering schools around the world whose mission statement is to research and offer an innovative framework educational for the training of engineers. Currently only 3 Spanish engineering schools are integrated in this network. 

Its main goal is to generate an environment close to the professional practice of engineering as an ideal context for learning, so that students are involved in real challenges and problems of the collaborating companies. This was recently announced by the director of Tecnun, Raúl Antón, at the committee advisor of Companies of the School, made up of some thirty companies that collaborate with the training of student body.  

CDIO was founded 20 years ago at the urging of MIT and the Swedish universities of Chalmers, Linköping and KTH. It was born with the goal to reduce the gap between the profile output of their engineers and the needs of the industry. In 2004 they defined the most comprehensive list of competencies known, the CDIO Syllabus, and a list of 12 standards.

The integration in CDIO is an excellent opportunity for Tecnun to access resources and experiences of great interest for the improvement of teaching. All over the world, the collaborating centers of the CDIO initiative have adopted it as the framework of reference letter for their curricular planning.

In this sense, and for an adequate follow-up of the quality standards of teaching proposed by the CDIO, a committee of experts has been formed at the School of Engineering of the University of Navarra, which has already started working to review the curricula of the different Degrees and to see how to implement in them, without changing them, teaching innovations and improvements based on the CDIO criteria.

The new CDIO committee is made up of professors Javier Aldazábal, Menchu Blanco, Idoia Salazar and Nicolás Serrano, under the direction of the deputy director of Office of Academic Affairs, Marta Ormazábal. In addition, there will be external advice from Samuel Azasu, from the University of the Witwatersrand, with whom Tecnun teachers have already worked in January on different aspects related to innovation professor. Professor Azasu directs training courses for university professors at KTH and South Africa, and has received numerous awards for his work as a university professor .

Information related to the CDIO criteria and proposals will be provided to academic staff throughout academic year . This initiative will also serve to devise new formulas that promote integrated learning for students and their participation in challenges and problems that simulate the internship of an engineer in his profession, thus connecting the technical knowledge with the needs of the real world. Likewise, concrete actions will be identified that could be implemented during the following year through innovation projects professor.