CAD and Technical Drawing as cooperation module

The MINT-EC certificate is awarded by MINT-EC schools to honour high school graduates who have been involved in the STEM field throughout their entire school career and beyond the classroom. In Aachen, there are five MINT-EC schools with upper secondary level and an excellent maths, science and technology profile: Couven-Gymnasium is one of them. Since October 2024, there has been a cooperation between the Couven Gymnasium in Aachen and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics at FH Aachen, in which students can take part in the "Computer-Aided Design (CAD) / Technical Drawing (TZ)" teaching module at FH Aachen.

Like the students, they complete the module with lectures, practical trainings and a final written examination. However, the latter is voluntary for the students. If they pass it, the students have the opportunity to have the CAD/TZ module recognised as academic achievements for their engineering degree at other universities. Wolfgang Heinen, STEM Coordinator at Couven-Gymnasium, explains: "Another advantage for our students is that they receive points for attending the CAD/TZ course. The sum of all STEM activities in Secondary II must be at least 20 points in order to earn a MINT-EC certificate."

Professor Rolf W. Schmitt explains his teaching module: “CAD/TZ is a basic subject for mechanical engineers and mechatronics engineers. It is particularly well suited for school co-operation as it does not require any basic knowledge. Everyone starts from scratch. The students learn how engineers think and what engineers need to pay attention to. Lawyers need to know laws, whereas engineers need to know technical standards and guidelines.”

CAD/TZ knowledge is important for many technical professions. For example, it enables design details to be communicated precisely, components to be manufactured in accordance with standards and working documents to be created for specialists and customers to work with. CAD/TZ shortens the development time of technical products and minimises design errors.

At FH Aachen, Prof Schmitt was strongly supported by Josef Schmertz, Ralf Sander and Maria Gaton-Martinéz (Research Assistant at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Mechatronics). Mr Schmertz and Mr Sander supervised the CAD practical training, while Ms Gaton also supervised the TC practical training. "It certainly wasn't always easy," says Ms Gaton, "but what counts is that the students are able to create standardised, production and functional technical drawings both manually and with the help of computers. They can read and interpret complex technical drawings. And they know the basics and possibilities of computer-aided modelling in a 3D CAD system."