#43 Anette Kolmos and Henrik Worm Routhe from Aalborg on Interdisciplinary PBL
Mon Jan 19 2026
The rising complexity of modern societal challenges has intensified interest in interdisciplinary engineering education.
In this episode we speak to Professor Anette Kolmos (Professor in Engineering Education and PBL) and Dr Henrik Worm Routhe (Postdoctoral Researcher) from Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark, about InterPBL and the different approaches that can be taken to interdisciplinary learning and teaching.
Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the many different ways in which we can integrate interdisciplinary projects into our engineering courses.
Timestamps
0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode
0.25 Podcast Intro
0.52 Experiences with interdisciplinary from Natalie and Neil
2.30 Introduction to Anette and Henrik
7.20 Aalborg University (AAU)
9.18 Introduction to InterPBL
13.00 Examples of the challenges associated with interdisciplinary project work
14.34 Aims of the InterPBL project
17.04 Interdisciplinary in engineering practice
21.00 Definitions
24.25 Cognitive trust and boundary objects
31.00 How does interdisciplinary work impact identity?
35.28 A typology of interdisciplinary projects
48.32 Students' motivation
50.57 Leadership
55.21 Assessment of interdisciplinary
58.41 Implications for staff and capacity building
1:00:50 Measuring the effectiveness of interdisciplinary learning and teaching
1:05:40 Introducting interdisciplinary in your own context
1:09:56 Mega-projects (M-Project) and broad interdisciplinary
1:15:25 Key Takeaways and implications from Anette and Henrik
1:25:38 What is next for research in this area?
1:28:48 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil
Resources
A small sample of papers which focus on the InterPBL project are linked below
This paper focuses on student learning outcomes of interdisciplinary work
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10171180
This provides insights from a narrow interdisciplinary curriculum project named “leadENG
https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/interdisciplinary-problem-based-projects-for-first-year-engineeri/
This paper focuses on development of leadership competencies
https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/752930995/17_ijee4479.pdf
These papers focus on the different project types
https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/138
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2023.2267476
Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering
Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering
educators: www.sefi.be
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The rising complexity of modern societal challenges has intensified interest in interdisciplinary engineering education. In this episode we speak to Professor Anette Kolmos (Professor in Engineering Education and PBL) and Dr Henrik Worm Routhe (Postdoctoral Researcher) from Aalborg University (AAU) in Denmark, about InterPBL and the different approaches that can be taken to interdisciplinary learning and teaching. Join Dr. Natalie Wint (University College London) and Prof. Neil Cooke (University of Birmingham) to learn about the many different ways in which we can integrate interdisciplinary projects into our engineering courses. Timestamps 0.00 Welcome and introduction to episode 0.25 Podcast Intro 0.52 Experiences with interdisciplinary from Natalie and Neil 2.30 Introduction to Anette and Henrik 7.20 Aalborg University (AAU) 9.18 Introduction to InterPBL 13.00 Examples of the challenges associated with interdisciplinary project work 14.34 Aims of the InterPBL project 17.04 Interdisciplinary in engineering practice 21.00 Definitions 24.25 Cognitive trust and boundary objects 31.00 How does interdisciplinary work impact identity? 35.28 A typology of interdisciplinary projects 48.32 Students' motivation 50.57 Leadership 55.21 Assessment of interdisciplinary 58.41 Implications for staff and capacity building 1:00:50 Measuring the effectiveness of interdisciplinary learning and teaching 1:05:40 Introducting interdisciplinary in your own context 1:09:56 Mega-projects (M-Project) and broad interdisciplinary 1:15:25 Key Takeaways and implications from Anette and Henrik 1:25:38 What is next for research in this area? 1:28:48 Key takeaways from Natalie and Neil Resources A small sample of papers which focus on the InterPBL project are linked below This paper focuses on student learning outcomes of interdisciplinary work https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10171180 This provides insights from a narrow interdisciplinary curriculum project named “leadENG https://vbn.aau.dk/en/publications/interdisciplinary-problem-based-projects-for-first-year-engineeri/ This paper focuses on development of leadership competencies https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/portalfiles/portal/752930995/17_ijee4479.pdf These papers focus on the different project types https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/15/2/138 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03043797.2023.2267476 Join us! Become a member of the European Society for Engineering Education, SEFI, Europe's largest network of engineering educators: www.sefi.be Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.