Problems in Engineering Education, Engineering and Invention

Problems are the main link in the evolution of the system of engineering education, engineering and invention. In this paper the system of relations of engineering education, engineering and inventive activity is discussed. An analysis of the relationship of the level of knowledge necessary for solving educational and real-life tasks and skills leading to the creation of inventions is given. The goal of the paper is to bridge the existing gap between technologies (methods) of solving real engineering problems and educational tasks in the field of education (didactics). The objectives of our study are the following: (1) to substantiate and propose a more correct (than the existing definitions) definition of the task (as a task system); (2) to build on the basis of a systematic approach a generalized ("minimized'') typology of task systems; (3) to substantiate and build a model, as well as to hold (from the position of verification) a reflection of the relationship of real engineering problems and training tasks as minimized models of cognitive actions. By analogy with the typology of inventions (products and processes), problems are considered "in statics'' and "in dynamics''. The problem of goal setting is discussed. Based on the analysis of taxonomy of problems, a model of their generalized typology is proposed. The authors' definition of a problem is given on the basis of its functional nature. A model of the relationship of educational and real production problems is proposed. This model can be used as a task constructor of various degrees of difficulty in learning process.