Multinational Project-Based Education: An Alliance for Integration of Research, Education, and Service

该项目的重点是发展基于跨国学生/教师项目的方法，以整合研究和教育。大多数重大的实际问题，如环境、公共卫生和获得技术，本质上是跨学科的，是跨国界的。在国际上，我们也面临着改变高等教育本身的挑战，使其更容易获得，更能满足我们社区的需求。华盛顿大学的教师们一直在研究将解决共同科学和工程挑战的多国合作研究与我们机构改革中的互助联系起来的模式。这种方法的本质是利用丰富而充满活力的国际研究和服务活动，这是教师兴趣和热情的核心，同时创造可以嵌入本科课程核心的机会。目前的项目建立在这个充满希望的领域迄今为止的工作基础上，通过建立一个由美国和世界各地的大学组成的小型联盟，这将进一步完善、扩大和制度化这种整合国际研究、教育和服务的方法。这种基于跨国项目的策略有几个设计特点。优先项目：1)在各个方面都嵌入真正的教师研究兴趣；2)可以在课程结构中发生，影响到各方面的大量本科生，而不是少数幸运者；3)为解决实际的地区问题做出贡献；4)与其他盟友建立深厚的伙伴关系，包括工业、州和地方政府以及非营利组织。与日本仙台东北大学（Tohoku University）的一年级工程设计合作项目已经启动，目前已进入第三个年头。与四川大学在中国成都启动了一项为期四年的关于两个地区面临的环境挑战的合作项目。为了进一步促进国际教育和研究的根本性改革，该项目正在支持两项主要活动。首先是帮助建立一个小型机构联盟，每个机构都有一个共同的愿景，即将本科教育改革与复杂地区问题的解决方案战略性地结合起来。这对于增加能够参与的机构的多样性尤为重要。第二是传播核心小组在整合教育和研究的跨国合作的语用学方面所吸取的经验教训。华盛顿大学对该项目的成功做出了重大承诺，包括教师的释放时间，员工的支持和现金，总计约为国家科学基金会要求的金额的50%。

The focus of this project is on the development of multinational student/faculty project-based approaches to integrating research and education. Most major practical problems, such as environment, public health and the access to technology, are inherently interdisciplinary and are shared across national boundaries. Internationally, we also face the challenge of transforming higher education itself to become more accessible and more responsive to the needs of our communities. Faculty at the University of Washington have been working on models for coupling collaborative multinational research addressing common scientific and engineering challenges to mutual assistance in the reform of our institutions. The essence of this approach is to tap into the rich and vibrant spectrum of international research and service activities, which are at the very heart of faculty interests and enthusiasms, while simultaneously creating opportunities that can be embedded in the core of undergraduate curricula. The current project builds on work to date in this promising arena by creating a small alliance of universities, both within the US and worldwide, which will collaborate on further refining, scaling-up, and institutionalizing this approach to integrating international research, education and service. There are several design features to this multinational project-based strategy. Prioritized projects : 1) Are embedded in genuine faculty research interests on all sides; 2) Can take place within curricular structures that affect large numbers of undergraduate students on all sides, rather than the fortunate few; 3) Contribute to the solution of practical regional problems, and 4) Invoke deep partnerships with other allies, including industry, state and local government, and non-profit organizations. A collaboration on first-year engineering design with Tohoku University, in Sendai, Japan, has been created and is currently in its third year. A four-year collaborative project on environmental challenges facing two regions with Sichuan University, in Chengdu, China has been launched. To further catalyze a fundamental re-formulation of international education and research, this project is supporting two major activities. The first is to help seed the creation of a small alliance of institutions, each of which shares the vision of strategically coupling undergraduate education reform to the solution of complex regional problems. This is particularly important in increasing the range of diversity of institutions that are able to participate. The second is to disseminate the lessons learned by the core group concerning the pragmatics of multinational collaborations that integrate education and research. The University of Washington has made a major commitment to the success of this project, including faculty release time, staff support and cash, totalling approximately 50% of the amount requested from the National Science Foundation.