WPI’s Project-Based Learning Studied as Part of Higher Ed Overhaul in Brazil

As the Brazilian government undertakes a massive eight-year project to modernize its undergraduate engineering education system, an international public-private partnership has deployed scores of faculty members and graduate students to study adaptable approaches in use at some U.S. universities—including WPI. 

That’s how Kaiky Cesar Amaro, a Fulbright scholar and doctoral student from the University of São Paulo, ended up spending two weeks in Worcester this fall to better understand WPI’s distinctive method of project-based learning (PBL). 

“I came to WPI to learn new strategies of teaching and learning to see how we can make engineering education more active,” he says. 

Back home, Amaro will adapt what he learned here to the courses he teaches and suggest ways to scale up the model for the entire chemical engineering department. Through his faculty advisor, Amaro will then share his learnings with Brazilian officials involved in the wider government effort.

Amaro’s engineering research focuses on food processing, specifically as it relates to microwaves, ultraviolet light, and high pressure. At the University of São Paulo he is a teaching assistant for undergraduate classes on food engineering, heat transfer, and mass transfer. 

“It is a challenge to keep students engaged throughout the heat and mass transfer course, so we need to come up with activities they find interesting,” he says. “They are more likely to learn while doing something that they enjoy.”

At WPI, he saw again and again how engaged students are when working on projects. 

Amaro reached out to the Center for Project-Based Learning after reading a paper about using projects in engineering education that was published earlier this year in the International Journal of Mechanical Engineering Education. The Center’s senior research and evaluation associate, Kimberly LeChasseur, connected Amaro with a range of faculty and coordinated classroom visits and workshop sessions to help show how versatile PBL can be. 

“All of us at WPI know how great project-based learning is, and it’s nice to be reminded that we have something innovative to share with educators from around the world. Having Kaiky here has been a great reminder of the lasting impact that projects can have on our students, faculty, and community partners,” LeChasseur says. 

The Brazilian initiative is funded by $5.76 million from the Fulbright Commission, the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia, and the Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education, in partnership with the Brazilian Ministry of Education and the National Council of Education, an independent advisory group. 

The project aims to foster innovations in engineering curricula and teaching methods throughout Brazil while better integrating the country’s higher education system and developing lasting industry partnerships around the world—all with the goal of making Brazilian engineering students more competitive.