A Retrospective Study of the Benefits of The “CPS Engineering” Courses for Current Graduate Careers

Abstract

Well-trained engineers are needed to plan, design, develop and maintain cyber physical systems (CPS) that form the core of modern digitized industrial infrastructures. The development of such systems is challenging, however, according to industry representatives, the graduates are not adequately prepared for professional practice. In particular, there is a lack of transferable skills. To be employable and successful in their careers, students must have the opportunity to gain experience developing such systems during their studies and practice both technical and transferable skills in realistic environments. This paper aims to provide a retrospective view of the outcomes of two courses in industrial CPS engineering within the master’s program at ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia, conducted in the winter semesters of 2016/17 and 2017/18. For this purpose, graduates who participated in these courses were interviewed in 2022. The respondents reflected on the benefits of these courses for their work. The graduates reported that participation was highly relevant to both their professional and personal development. They indicated that they especially valued programming skills and collaboration and communication skills that they acquired in the courses.