Establishing an immersive cross-cultural experiential learning and design collaboration for engineering students and faculty

Abstract

Engineering graduates must not only develop technical skills for success within their career but they must also develop global competence to interact effectively in today's increasingly interconnected world. Beginning in 2008, a group of universities from different parts of the world partnered together with a goal of better preparing global engineering graduates. This resulted in a culturally immersive international product development and design experience that takes place each summer. Students primarily from universities within the USA travel to the National University of Singapore for an intensive two and one-half week design interaction in late May and Early June. Professors from participating universities that include the National University of Singapore (NUS), Penn State University (PSU), Brigham Young University (BYU), and Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I) co- Teach the program. Students attend interactive classroom sessions, visit companies within Singapore to learn about product development and design, and work on a collaborative group project that includes a final presentation and typically a proof-of-concept prototype. Student teams are intentionally diverse, with representation from the different universities and cultures. In this way, students experience diversity of thought both technically and culturally that enriches the development of design concepts and the learning experience. In addition, students and faculty experience the cultural diversity of the host location while also learning from each other. This collaboration has led to additional opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate including senior capstone design partnerships, research collaboration, and faculty exchange. This paper provides insights into collaborative international team-based student design experiences and faculty interaction among multiple universities including the flexibility and adaptation of this approach in other curricular areas or different host locations. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2014.