Abstract:
The impacts of globalization, changing socio-demographics, and technological advances are uniquely altering the role of engineering in society, identifying significant ch...Show MoreMetadata
Abstract:
The impacts of globalization, changing socio-demographics, and technological advances are uniquely altering the role of engineering in society, identifying significant challenges in the way colleges and universities address the engineering profession, engineering education, and associated engineering student assessment processes and practices. Schools of engineering have been challenged to reconsider how they prepare their graduates to bring high level skills and strategies including team focused innovation, a comprehensive engineering problem-solving approach, cultural competence, globally focused ethics, and leadership to the workplace. Numerous prominent organizations including the National Academy of Engineering, the National Science Foundation, and the National Research Council have charged engineering schools to task on preparing engineers for global workforces. In response, many engineering programs are experimenting with strategies and programs designed to prepare students to solve important engineering problems that stretch far beyond national boundaries geographically, technologically, culturally and socio-politically. Sparse research exists, however, that comprehensively assesses globally focused outcomes associated with such engineering efforts, and the simple question remains: Are international efforts effective? The researchers compare the experiences of students participating in two Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs funded by the National Science Foundation; the NanoJapan International REU Program in Japan and the domestic Rice Quantum Institute (RQT) REU at Rice University. NanoJapan is a twelve-week summer program through which twelve freshman and sophomore physics and engineering students from U.S. universities complete research internships in Japanese nanotechnology laboratories. The RQI is a ten-week undergraduate REU in which sophomore and junior students from U.S. universities complete research in atomic, molecular, optical...
Date of Conference: 22-25 October 2014
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 19 February 2015
Electronic ISBN:978-1-4799-3922-0