Product Development is an important topic fbr many engineering courses and educational programs. It deals with al1 the necessary steps to bring new or redesigned products to the market, Although product development is practiced in many different ways, there are some common elements that can be taught by universities to prepare students for jobs in industry. In this study, a globally available softivare was tested in a product develepment project, as part of an undergraduate course for

more »

... Engineering students. The project entailed development of a liquid container fbr use in developing countries or disaster areas. The software, CES Edul'ack, consists of a combination of materials and manufacturing process databases, eco-performance indicators, as well as computeT based selection and visualization tools. This platform of comprehensive and comparable data provided by the software, combined with visual charts and Eco Audits, fa¢ ilitates the communication and collaboration within and between prejeet groups. This is usefu1 e.g., in concurrent engineering or global engineering. In the case study, we confirm that the computer based approach employed could be used to faciiitate collaborative learning and identify, in particular, three areas related to the product development process where the software has been a successfu1 resource. Kleyworcis.' Product developmen4 project based learning collaboration, CES EduPack Materials.