This paper focuses on a special field of the engineering profession, namely the breakthrough innovation in technical products and on the education process to prepare young people for this challenging task. Both in the practice of industry and in education, the prerequisite is an adequate technology base, which afterwards is expanded into wider knowledge, know-how and competences. This is symbolized by the T-shape: the vertical part of the T stands for the core technology(ies) and the horizontal bar indicates the later expansion, that can be achieved in hands-on industrial practice or in dedicated education programs. It also links the core technologies of different engineers in a multidisciplinary team.
The paper describes the importance of introducing well-supervised, multidisciplinary lectures, workshops and project weeks for engineering students and illustrates this by means of analysis of two educational approaches – both multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural, namely the development of a master curriculum “Technical Innovation” and the Intensive Program (IP): “A multidisciplinary approach to product innovation”. Both programs focus on three main aspects, being essential for success, namely knowledge transfer, workshop-based implementation on industrial innovation problems and guided consult from experienced supervisors. The IP is an intensive project, acting as an indispensable basic program for engineering students, gaining the competence of ‘working in a multidisciplinary and multi-cultural team’. Moreover, this IP is also a teaser for students, who are willing to enlarge the ‘horizontal’ skills and becoming a full Tshaped engineer through a master curriculum of “Technical innovation”.
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