Educating Engineers as Global Citizens: A Call for Action / A Report of the National Summit Meeting on the Globalization of Engineering Education

On November 5-6, 2008, a group of 23 distinguished engineering educators convened in Newport, Rhode Island to discuss the globalization of U. S. engineering education. Their goal was to consider the changes and challenges brought about by the recent wave of globalization and to ask, as so many colleagues are doing around the country, what proactive steps need to be taken by engineering educators to ensure that their graduates are prepared to be productive citizens and professionals in today’s and tomorrow’s complex world. Encouraged and supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and its Division of Engineering Education and Centers, the group began its meeting with observations and advice from three executives in the contemporary global business arena. It was then tasked with a review of the rationale for incorporating global perspectives and skills into the engineering curriculum, as well as the urgency for doing so. The reasons for the generally slow response among engineering educators to this matter nationally, when compared to other nations in the industrialized world, were also explored. After consideration of the potential impact of the current economic downturn on this issue, the summit reviewed information about existing successful models and best practices for a more global engineering education at colleges and universities across the country in an attempt to answer the following questions: To what extent are American engineering programs sending their students abroad? What have we learned and what are the successful models and strategies for globalizing U.S. engineering education? What can be shared with the profession at large and by what means? The group concluded its work with a set of recommendations for funding agencies such as NSF, as well as a strong and succinct call to the profession at large for action, in the form of a document included in this report, entitled The Newport Declaration. The following is a summative and detailed report of this meeting, based in part on a set of papers and documents which had been prepared in advance and were then revised to include the benefit of the group’s discussions

International Research and Engineering Education: Impacts and Best Practices

In 2006, the IREE program funded 115 proposals from 82 U.S higher education institutions. Researchers and their faculty attended and presented their trip report at a 3-day conference held at Purdue University in November 2007. The first grantees conference was attended by 170 people, including 47 faculty members, 113 graduate students, 6 undergraduate students, and 6 NSF staff members. The 2007 IREE Grantees Conference was to provide a venue and facilitated opportunity for the IREE awardees, both students and faculty, to share experiences and what they gained from their time abroad under IREE. There are a set of 18 impacts of IREE that are categorized in three areas: Technical, professional, global/ trans-cultural. Based on these impacts, a set of best practices and recommendations are put forth to maximize learning and research outcomes of international research and engineering education

Best of Both Worlds: Foreign Language Preparation for Purdue University’s Undergraduate Global Engineering Education Program

Over the years, Purdue University has drastically increased the number of engineering students studying and interning abroad from less than 3% in 2000 to more than 10% in 2010. In order to increase the capacity of global engineering education curriculum, there is a need to create different study abroad programs to suit different student interests. Yet, the need of foreign language preparation remains in question. At Purdue University, researchers and administrators observed that students often self-select into study abroad programs of varying intensity according to the varying foreign language and GPA requirements. Case studies of student participants from four different Purdue education abroad programs will be demonstrated in this paper in the following order: (1) Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE), (2) International Research and Education for Engineering (IREE), (3) Global Internship, and (4) China Maymester Abroad Program. These case studies will be used to illustrate the importance of foreign language preparation and the varying needs. These results will also demonstrate that the achieved level of foreign language competency impacts technical outcomes and engineering professionalism

Making the Case for Global Engineering: Building Foreign Language Collaborations for Designing, Implementing, and Assessing Programs

Engineering programs must prepare students for a global engineering profession. In global markets, processes as well as products can be outsourced. Highly technical engineering work may be completed by large and diverse collaborations. Engineering students need to have foundational work in languages, cultural differences, and strategies for working with diverse colleagues. Historically only about 3% to 4% of engineering students pursue study abroad opportunities. Clearly, new and innovative programs must be devised to build global competency in undergraduate engineers. In working toward that end, the authors suggest that interdisciplinary collaborations between departments of foreign language and schools of engineering can be highly productive. To illustrate the benefits of such collaborations and to share the results of recent program assessments, this case study presents a conceptual model useful in program design and describes the evolution of a particularly intensive and effective program in global competency for undergraduate engineers