Engineering Education in Cambodia: Investigating Undergraduate Engineering Students' Understanding of the Engineering Design Process

The purpose of this study was to investigate the scope and depth of the engineering design process understood by Cambodian engineering students. An activity involving the building of a mobile phone battery charger system was designed and implemented for the study. Ten undergraduate engineering students participated, and data were collected from focus group interviews, photocopies of protocols and initial products, and observation notes throughout a three-week long project. Data were analyzed by coding and finding patterns and themes in major storylines focusing on the engineering design process. The results were fourfold: (a) Cambodian undergraduate engineering students expanded their understanding of engineering design benefits from an individual to a national level; (b) students felt they were not adequately prepared in mathematics and science in high school; (c) the learning environment, that is, the problem-based context, and the culture of the Cambodian classroom influenced students' learning in engineering design; and (d) students also recognized the iterative nature of the engineering design process and associated challenges to overcome. Thus, experiencing engineering design in a practical, engineering problem-based context helped strengthen their career goal of becoming engineers. The implications for engineering education in Cambodia are discussed in the paper.