Key words: research abroad, global competency, global programs
As engineering work becomes increasingly global, it is important to provide opportunities for engineering students to develop global competency. However, study abroad programs can be challenging for students to fit into the highly structured engineering curriculum. One alternative is to offer engineering-focused international research experiences for undergraduates, which allow students to gain global experiences during the summer while also developing research skills. International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) is an NSF program that helps universities provide such opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students in STEM fields. This paper will compare two IRES programs based out of the same U.S. university: one that sends students to China and one to Australia. The study followed case study format where each program represents a separate case, and analysis was conducted both within cases and across cases. The results address the following research question: How does the location of an international research program influence what students learn from the experience?
In Summer 2017, two civil engineering students completed research in Australia, while seven mechanical engineering students completed research in China. These students were provided with the same orientation at the beginning of the summer and their programs were of similar duration. After the conclusion of the programs, interviews were conducted with all participants asking about their experience and what they learned from it. Specifically, students were asked to discuss what they learned about what it means to be a researcher and what it means to be a global engineer. Initial coding was conducted within each case, and themes were developed for each case separately. The results of this coding process were then compared across both cases, and commonalities and differences identified. These results can inform the design of future global engineering programs in terms of location and components, and different outcomes between the two programs analyzed suggest opportunities to learn from each other.
Kirsten Davis is an assistant professor in the School of Engineering Education at Purdue University. Her research explores the intentional design and assessment of global engineering programs, student development through experiential learning, and approaches for teaching and assessing systems thinking skills. Kirsten holds a B.S. in Engineering & Management from Clarkson University and an M.A.Ed. in Higher Education, M.S. in Systems Engineering, and Ph.D. in Engineering Education, all from Virginia Tech.
Yousef Jalali is a Ph.D. student in Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. He received a B.S. and M.S. in Chemical Engineering and M.Eng. in Energy Systems Engineering. His research interests include critical thinking, ethics, and process design and training.
David Knight is a Professor in the Department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech and also serves as Chief of Strategy in the College of Engineering and Special Assistant to the Provost. His research tends to be at the macro-scale, focused on a systems-level perspective of how engineering education can become more effective, efficient, and inclusive, and considers the intersection between policy and organizational contexts. Knight currently serves as the co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering Education.
Dr. Vinod K. Lohani is a Professor of Engineering Education and also serves as the Director of education and global initiatives at an interdisciplinary research institute called the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) at Virginia
Rolf Mueller has studied various aspects of bat biosonar from the perspectives of biophysics and bioinspired engineering for almost 20 years and has (co)authored over 70 peer-reviewed, full-length publications on the topic. In particular, he has worked on statistical signal processing of sonar signals in complex, natural environments, biosonar beamforming, as well as biomimetic sonar systems. The focus areas of his current research are the extraction of adaptive design rules analysis from biodiversity and bioinspired dynamic principles for sensing. He is currently an associate professor in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech and directs the Bioinspired
Science and Technology (BIST) Center, an ICTAS-supported interdisciplinary effort with 40 faculty members from across the university. In his international efforts, he directs the Shandong University - Virginia Tech International Laboratory that is dedicated to the engineering analysis of biosonar, flight, and system integration in bats. His international work has been recognized by the Friendship Award of the People's Republic of China (2010), a Dean's
Award of the VT College of Engineering (2011), and Virginia Tech's Alumni Award for International Research (2016).
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