The Conceive Design Implement Operate (CDIO) Initiative - An Engineering Pedagogy Applied to the Education of Maritime Engineers

The Conceive Design Implement Operate (CDIO) initiative is an innovative engineering education framework aiming to produce industry-ready graduates. Over the past two decades, the approach has been increasingly popular, particularly in the mechanical engineering field, thanks to its practical approach and outcome-based assessments. However, the CDIO approach remains absent from the pedagogical tools employed in naval architecture curricula. This paper argues that, although unrecognized as such, modern yacht and ship courses have been employing an approach akin to that of the CDIO initiative. Four international case studies, in both undergraduate and postgraduate higher education, are employed to demonstrate that the courses under consideration indeed utilize the CDIO approach to engineering education. Furthermore, this paper identifies the CDIO initiative as a relevant pedagogy for the development of maritime engineers and naval architects, and provides applicable guidelines to implement CDIO. It is anticipated that this first recognition of the use of the CDIO initiative in naval architecture courses will contribute to formalizing the implementation of the CDIO initiative in this field, as well as enable greater synergies between the various disciplines of engineering education.