Speaker
Description
One of the challenging tasks in the sustainability transformation of the world is the qualification of engineering students, who should and can creatively change existing technology in their subsequent careers and thus shape it sustainable. Never before has the classical education in mechanics, with the modeling of technical systems, the confident and at the same time critical model evaluation, the well-founded solutions of the model equations with use for intensive studies and the generation of in-depth valid findings, been of such immeasurable importance as in the phase of ecological transformation. Only sound knowledge of the function of technical systems makes it possible to replace actionist trial and error procedures with actual improvements that can be planned and seriously predicted. Disruptive changes of technology require the highest level of competence to recognize, expand and apply fundamental correlations for future designs. In order to acquire this competence, a valuable foundation could be laid in the basic training of mechanics, which, with further high-quality training, would allow the hope of successfully mastering the challenge of the technological transformation. Unfortunately, however, the theoretically sound teaching of mechanics rarely reaches the students mind and their ability to understand, apply and transform engineering systems.
This article shows how the valuable classical mechanics can be combined with practical and, consequently, inspiring analyses of engineering systems to reach the intellectual soul of the students. Furthermore, using the example of a recently planned new highway bridge construction, it is shown how the skillful application of the mechanical principles, used by Bachelor students, can significantly improve the current design or preservation of the existing bridge through partial improvement and, consequently, demonstrating the achievement for a sustainable transformation in engineering.
