Teaching statistics to engineers: An innovative pedagogical experience

In recent years, the growing consciousness of the importance of statistics in the training of engineers has been accompanied in the western world by an increasing dissatisfaction with the teaching of statistics in universities. Within the framework of the Educational Innovation Project (PIE) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, a group of teachers in the Department of Statistics introduced an innovation project beginning in 1989. This project has entailed a complete restructuring of the syllabus, as well as the teaching methodology. In this paper we explain different aspects of this project, emphasizing the important role of computer resources and the satisfacory results obtained.