A 1½-year research and development project in collaboration with the Department of Civil Engineering, Aalborg University. The project employed an action etnography approach, where the researcher interacted continually with teaching academics and technical staff as well as engineering students from the two geographic locations of the department (Esbjerg and Aalborg) in order to explore the potential of learning and development in engineering education. Three developmental strategies emerged as worth pursuing towards an enhanced quality of learning, namely: a pedagogically aligned use of technology; a pedagogy of active learning involving the experiential learning potential of laboratories and field work; and finally, boosting the learning potential of PBL (problem based learning) in terms of enhanced, real life interdisciplinary collaboration and the development of professional skills (communication and interpersonal skills).