No one doubts that the health sector will already be one of the future sectors. Already, well-trained professionals are increasingly demanding new solutions and services. Mondragon University is committed to Biomedical Engineering and this year's PBL Day has shown that students in this degree are starting to offer interesting projects and services.

 

The fourth edition of PBL Day was for a group of five girls who designed and developed a project that would allow a corneal cell culture product to take advantage of low-density corneal donors today. This solution will lead to a reduction in waiting lists for keratoplasties.

Of the 1,567 nine undergraduate engineering students at Mondragon University Higher Polytechnic University, 250 students completed 250 PBL (Project Based Learning - a real problem solving method) projects during the first six months of the school year. The 25 best were shown at the Orona Foundation at the IV PBLDAY. to compete in the edition and win one of the prizes: an official prize of 1,000 euros and a prize of 400 euros for the most voted 300 students of the high school and vocational training centers. The following girls were awarded a prize of € 1,000: Maitane Araujo González, Eider Casado Lozano, Ainhoa ​​Zallo Urraza, Izarra Berasategi Oyanguren and Saioa Iriarte Cilveti.

 

PBL is a learning method for solving real problems and is pioneered by Mondragon University in Spain. In this model, which is comparable to those of universities in Northern Europe and the United States, students must apply the knowledge acquired during the school year and develop the skills that are difficult to take in class and individually (such as communication, leadership, decision making, etc.). The purpose of the method is to apply knowledge as students do in the future, addressing problems and solving them by introducing practices acquired in different areas during the school year. To do this, they must integrate the knowledge of the lessons they have taught.

The conference aims to showcase Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology, that is, learning to learn and learning from real problem solving. In addition to the 25 PBLs selected for the competition (including around 250), with panels and videos throughout the day, the best PBL 2019 was awarded the official award. A jury of university professors and experts in business chose a winning team, considering the technical solution proposed and how the teams communicated on their stands. As it was, a second prize, the high school and vocational students voted the most. In all these projects the students worked during the first six months of the school year. Overall, there were 800 students, of whom 300 were from high school and high school and all were engineering students from Mondragon University.

 

The 25 projects selected were a sample of about 250 projects submitted by students. Those selected to compete for the best PBL project came from different engineering fields, such as energy, biomedical, industrial ecotechnology, industrial design, electronics, computing, mechanics, organization or telecommunications. The finalists included a phylogenetic robot, a marine plastics pick-up solution, a snowboard skateboard, a bamboo electric bicycle development, an audio amplifier, a rehab clinic, a minihydraulic power plant design and emulation, a cable car transportation research to move low mobility patients, a scape room simulator, an ultrasound radar, a ball receiver ... among others.