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Enhancing Freshman Engineering Experience Through Global Design Projects

Explore how international collaboration in freshman engineering courses benefits students. Learn about planning, difficulties, benefits, assessment, and students' responses to multi-national projects. Discover the impact of global design projects on students' learning and professional development.

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Enhancing Freshman Engineering Experience Through Global Design Projects

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  1. International Experience for Freshman Engineering Students through Multi-National Global Design Projects Ivan E. Esparragoza The Pennsylvania State University

  2. Outline • Introduction and Background • Planning the International Collaboration • Multi-national Collaborative Design Project • Difficulties and Benefits • Students Assessment and Response • Conclusion and Final Remarks

  3. Introduction • Establishment of new regional economic alliances. • Almost all major corporations now operate globally. • Engineers are being challenged to: • Design and develop new products for a global market • Work with multinational teams • Provide service to international customers • Work in multinational corporations

  4. Introduction • Globalization implies that engineers must be prepared to face the new world. • Incorporating multi-national design projects is a very effective practice to expose the students to the international experience . • The new technology available for communication has facilitated the implementation of multi-national projects with teams disperse in different countries .

  5. Introduction • This work summarizes the first experience introducing multi-national global design projects in the freshman engineering design and graphics course. • The impact of this idea in the engineering students. • The advantages and difficulties in developing the international collaboration.

  6. Background • Penn State Delaware County is part of the Penn State University system. • This is a commuter campus which offers the first two years of engineering. • The student population is formed mainly by local residents who are non-traditional students. • Students hold part-time or full-time jobs while in the school • No previous teamwork or design projects experience • No knowledge of foreign language

  7. Background • Recognizing for the future engineer the importance of: • Diversity • Worldwide market • Multi-national teams, and • Global design • Incorporate multi-national design projects for freshman engineering students on this campus.

  8. Background • Partnership: Delaware County University Park Universidad Autonoma De Occidente, Colombia Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora, Brazil

  9. Planning the International Collaboration • Selection of the Courses: • PSU – Engineering Design & Graphics • UAO – Basic Design • UFJF – Voluntaries • Academic Calendar: • PSU – Second half • UAO & UFJF – Mid & First half • Time Zone • US-COL Same EST after two weeks US 1 hour ahead • US-BR Brazil 2 hours ahead after two weeks 1 hour ahead

  10. Planning the International Collaboration • Selection of the Students: • PSU – Engineering Design & Graphics (Freshman) • UAO – Basic Design (Freshman) • UFJF – Voluntaries (Sophomore) • Language Requirements: • English has been extensively used as a common language for international collaborations and it was used as the official language for this initiative • Collaborative Tools: • MSN messenger and Skype were used for the AV conferences and chatting • PSU cms used for exchange of files and information.

  11. International coordination Contact of instructors Coordinating schedules Selecting the project Interaction multi-national teams Technology for communication Local coordination Technical resources Forming local teams Delivering the project Provide time for AV conference Planning the International Collaboration Task to be accomplished:

  12. Planning the International Collaboration Collaboration Network:

  13. Multi-national Collaborative Design Project • Methods of structuring international projects:

  14. Multi-national Collaborative Design Project • Scheme structure for international project: parallel design.

  15. Multi-national Collaborative Design Project • Description of the design project: • The design of the mounting (support) system for a portable electronic warning sign for road emergencies which is easy to carry in the trunk of a car. • Following the parallel design projects scheme, students were allowed to work independently on each location. • Students were asked to share information and data with their international.

  16. Difficulties and Benefits • Difficulties: • Time: time zones, schedules, delivery • Language: translators • Technology problems • Resistance from the students to work with other teams • More work for the instructor

  17. Difficulties and Benefits • Benefits: • Global design: more diversity • International collaboration • Cultural awareness: value of cultural differences in design • Teamwork: multi-national teams • Communication skills • Collaborative tools • Fun into engineering courses • Recruitment and retention

  18. Students Assessment and Response • It is very important for the instructors to determine the impact and effectiveness of the global design projects and the international collaboration in reaching the learning outcomes set at the beginning of the process. • It is also critical to have the students’ perspective about this experience in terms of the structure and its implementation.

  19. Students Assessment and Response • Students were formally evaluated by grading their final design and their participation in the international collaboration. • Students were also asked to assess the global design project. • Team assessment • Individual assessment

  20. Students Assessment and Response • Team assessment: • Number of times they had AV conference with their partners • Number of time they had contact, besides the AV conference, with their partners • Number of times they discussed the problem and possible solutions with their partners • The first revealing issue was that one team had at least five contacts with the international partner while the other team reported two including AV conference, chat sessions and e-mail exchange • Both teams reported technological problems for communication.

  21. Students Assessment and Response • Individual assessment: • Most of the students found very interesting working with international students. • All the students consider that this was a pleasurable experience • Many students reported that was somehow confusing what their teams have to do with the global assignment. However, there was a group of students that understood the process from the very beginning. • By a simple majority students found more or less difficult to work with international teams. The others found not much difficult.

  22. Students Assessment and Response • Individual assessment: • Students placed language constraint as the number one thread for this type of collaboration. No interaction beyond the AV conference was placed as number two and technical problems as number three • The majority of the students reported they would like to do more projects like this. • All the students think engineers must learn to work in distributed teams. • The majority of the students consider this experience helped them to be prepared to work in distributed teams.

  23. Students Assessment and Response • Despite of the language constraint, the technical difficulties, the lack of experience and the few interactions of some participants, the overall experience was very positive for the students and the instructors. • It was also observed that students found the global design project more motivating than previous local projects.

  24. Conclusion and Final Remarks • This first global design project experience provides the bases for the commitment of this campus to offer an international experience to the freshman engineering students. • The overall response of the students participating and the effort of the instructors coordinating this initiative contribute to a successful practice.

  25. Conclusion and Final Remarks • Some of the issues to be considered for future alliances: • Coordinate the schedules and meeting times with the other participants ahead in advance. • Try to start this type of collaborations with a number of teams that can be easily managed. • Assign specific activities for the AV conferences or chat meetings and request a written progress report to keep the students engaged in the project. • Incorporate global design projects as part of a course and assign a grade to the project. • Collaborative tools: technology might be a problem in this type of initiatives. Have always a backup plan in case that a technological problem arises.

  26. Conclusion and Final Remarks • The benefits discoveries in this type of projects are significant to the students and the instructors. • Students: • Teaming international partners • New friends • Valuable international experience • Instructors • Broader view of engineering education • Links with colleagues for future exchange and research collaboration

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