Teaching Design Through International Collaboration (original) (raw)
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Global Distributed Engineering Student Design Teams: Effectiveness and Lessons Learned
2016
Twenty-first century engineering student professional skills require the ability to work effectively in multicultural, globally distributed teams. Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden) and Penn State University (USA) have formed a collaboration to provide students with an experience in this environment to start requisite skill development. The activity is anchored by a corporate supplied project with realistic open-ended design requirements. The students are expected to mimic the operation of a multinational corporate engineering team to develop a design solution. The collaboration was initiated in September 2014 and launched in January 2015 with Volvo Group as the industrial partner. In addition to the traditional design experience outcomes, the learning objectives from a global perspective are to: (a) understand the impact of engineering in a global, economic, environmental, and societal context; (b) understand cultural/ethnic differences and develop the ability to work sensi...
The European Global Product Realisation (EGPR) course is designed to bring knowledge and skills in engineering education and to develop student's competences for industrial collaboration and realisation. To connect undergraduate learning with real life experience, an academic virtual enterprise has been created between Kesslers International, a UK based company, and final year university students from 5 countries, namely: the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Slovenia and Croatia. Mixed international design teams use the most modern technologies and methods to develop concepts and prototypes of products for the core company, aimed to fulfil requirements of a global market. This paper reviews the main aspects and impact of EGPR on undergraduate education at City University and the fulfilment of the four major requirements of UK industry for the education of engineers in the 21 st century, namely: basic knowledge; skills; attitudes and; group work. It further outlines ...
Challenges of cross-Atlantic project collaboration in design education
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The paper reports a survey that was conducted among students who participated in pilot projects organised by the Centre for Design Research of the Stanford University and Decode Research Group of the Helsinki University of Technology. These CrossAtlantic projects were conducted within multidisciplinary teams consisting of students with various educational backgrounds such as mechanical engineering, industrial design, business administration, computer science, and industrial engineering. The objective of the paper is to discuss the main challenges encountered in the projects. The greatest challenges that students faced in the projects stemmed from disciplinary differences in terms of language, understanding, and working methods. The paper generates insights that are useful also for other instances that are planning global project collaboration within design research and education.
Global Design Teams and Professional Development and Issues in Engineering Education
Despite the broad scope of the areas covered in this summary, the papers are remarkably cohesive. Three papers in the set give overviews of these topics, each from a different perspective. [Devon et al.] identify the elements of global design and discuss their implications for design education. [Sheldon] reviews the design research literature, studies its relevance to industrial practice, and identifies areas of critical importance to industry. [Torlind et al.] present a series of case studies and develop a list of findings and research challenges for collaborative design. Each paper presents a list of research areas and challenges. I have combined the lists and organized the discussion of the papers around the integrated list. Many of the papers overlap several categories. For example, almost all the papers on global design teams address educational issues and professional practice. GLOBAL DESIGN TEAMS The critical elements for global design teams identified by [Devon et al.] include the need for global benchmarking, the 24 hour clock, as well as accounting for cultural diversity, for different national standards, and for the global economy.
Design and Engineering International Collaborative Projects: A state of art
2013
Due to the Globalization and the industrial development world wide, Engineering Collaborative projects have never been more important and the necessity of improving the processes used among them, neither. The language barrier is a mayor downfall for the success of any international project, and even though English is universally spoken, technical terminology is not well known. So here is where collaborative platforms become an essential tool, and the standardization of the procedures as well. In order to compare the competencies of the parties involved, so it becomes noted the areas of expertise of each country considering their culture and education models, it is necessary to evaluate and measure the individual and group skills of the participants, this information can be used in case of further projects as well it will give an idea of the strengths and weaknesses of each specific area in the selected country. After processing such information the results will give a clear view of the state of the actual situation on the matter; how to improve/develop an application or platform for efficient collaborative projects, what are the weak points or the competencies that are needed to improve to be better prepared for international projects, this are just few of the many applications that this kind of study can throw and it gives an idea to the universities of how to mold their programs and overall education to be at a competitive international level.
Experiences with Multi-National, Multi-Semester Design Team Projects
Proceedings. Frontiers in Education. 36th Annual Conference, 2006
This paper describes the experiences gained by the instructors of the first three multinational, multisemester design team project classes of the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE). The experiences with respect to technical challenges, communication within the assigned groups, leveraging the different educational backgrounds, technology transfer to supporting entities, interactions between students and support staff, transfer of credits and grades, and lessons learned are outlined in this paper.
The Role Of Virtual Student Design Teams In Engineering Education For The “New Workplace”
2004 Annual Conference Proceedings
The "new workplace" for engineering is increasingly at the interface of three environments: the Virtual environment, in which designs can be created and explored, with activities that range from interaction via the Internet to 3-D visualization and immersion in alternative designs of engineered systems; the Product Realization environment, in which physical embodiments of designs can be produced and evaluated; and the Human environment, in which people work together in face-to-face and virtual teams, the latter often internationally dispersed, to design and implement products and processes. Functioning at the interface of these environments is a challenge that must be met by engineering graduates. In this paper we primarily focus on the virtual team issues as they relate to pedagogy to prepare students to function on design teams in the "new workplace" and also show how Stevens is moving to address the new paradigm.
2004
Business is increasingly conducted in a global environment, not only in terms of markets but also design, production and service. It is therefore essential that engineering graduates have an orientation towards this globalization and are prepared to operate effectively within it. One manifestation of this new environment is the increasing need for engineers and others to collaborate internationally on projects, whether they are within the same international organization or in another relationship such as with sub-contractors or between end customers and suppliers. Also in this context we are increasingly seeing the expression 24-hour engineering used as business takes advantage of time zones around the world to effect efficient hand off of a project between international teams. Significant challenges must be overcome as engineers learn to work in the international environment. These challenges include those associated with differing cultures and language as well as the problems associated with what has been termed "virtual teams", which comprise physically separated individuals or groups that are connected through various communications links and information technology tools.
2008
This work describes the international collaborative learning experience among students from different institutions in the Americas through a multinational global design project. The case study presented here refers to the conceptual design and prototype fabrication of a portable folding bicycle as an economical and environmentally friendly transportation solution. The paper presents the technological, geographical and cultural challenges of this collaborative initiative, as well as the strategies, methodologies, planning, logistics, and specific tools for communication via Internet used to carry out the project.
Overcoming the Challenges of Global Collaboration Through Design Education
DS 95: Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Engineering and Product Design Education (E&PDE 2019), University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. 12th -13th September 2019, 2019
The challenges of integrating technology in global design classes have been published in the literature, but it is unclear if this knowledge makes its way back to the classroom. This paper investigates knowledge transfer by documenting the results of four workshops across two institutions and two distributed design classes. Participants were asked to identify the challenges of distributed design, the functionality of technologies to overcome the challenges and guidance on how best to perform distributed design to best help future students. 17 challenges, 10 functionalities and 8 guidelines were developed. The identification of challenges, functionalities and subsequent guidance created can be utilised to assist future students and educators of distributed design. Analysis of gaps in the knowledge identify where theories have not been transferred from literature to the classroom and will help to identify how best to fill the gaps in knowledge. The workshops also present a novel way to engage students in analysing their own collaborative work practices.