Design and Production Engineering. Some moving frontiers of the engineering education in Brazil
In this article we present an experience integrating design, production engineering and proj ects of social interest. Between design and production engineering there is an important overlapping zone with relevant implications for the education of engineer s. That zone consists of teaching activities, university re search and extension programs. We have analyzed the recent experience of the Production Engineering Program (COPPE/UFRJ), in its Master's and Doctorate courses as well as in the development of projects of social in terest. This experience points to a promising partnership both in an intra-university level (with the Department of Industrial Design of the Fine Arts School in UFRJ) and in an extra-university level (with stakeholders inv olved in projects of local and community development). Our focus is on learning processes developed in the experience. We claim that design is a critical elem ent in pedagogic mediation for it assists problem solving and it allows synthesized recognition of solution characte ristics and properties. Drawing is for design teaching as t he alphabet is for reading. Both are intellectual tech nologies that underlie possibilities of intervention in real ity by instrumental technologies.