Engineering Cultures: Expanding the Engineering Method for Global Problem Solvers

What does it mean for engineers to engage in global problem solving? What forms of knowledge or sets of capabilities characterize the effective global problem solver? What sorts of learning experiences are involved in gaining such knowledge and capabilities? The purpose of this paper is to present the design, initial steps, and preliminary assessment of the “Engineering Cultures: Building the Global Engineer” project which seeks to address the above questions through the development of a new undergraduate course called “Engineering Cultures.” The first section of this paper briefly outlines ongoing efforts to internationalize engineering curricula, followed by a discussion of how the Engineering Cultures project connects to existing work while also attempting to extend the opportunity to become global problem solvers to a broader population of students. The final section presents an initial set of outcomes from ongoing assessment efforts

The Globally Competent Engineer: Working Effectively with People Who Define Problems Differently

This paper offers and tests an approach to conceptualizing the global competency of engineers. It begins by showing that the often-stated goal of working effectively with different cultures is fundamentally about learning to work effectively with people who define problems differently. The paper offers a minimum learning criterion for global competency and three learning outcomes whose achievement can help engineering students fulfill that criterion. It uses the criterion to establish a typology of established methods to support global learning for engineering students. It introduces the course, Engineering Cultures, as an example of an integrated classroom experience designed to enable larger numbers of engineering students to take the critical first step toward global competency, and it offers a test application of the learning criterion and outcomes by using them to organize summative assessments of student learning in the course