HBCU Student Exchange Program with European Universities

当前通信和信息技术的趋势，政府放松管制，对环境问题和数据共享的兴趣导致了工程专业的全球化。雇主们越来越强调工程课程需要全球视野。近年来，工程认证要求已经修订，以强调理解对工程师重要的社会和全球问题的能力。作为回应，工程学术界正在重新配置其课程。一种常用的方法是为工科学生提供出国留学的机会，并与外国学生合作在跨国公司做项目。这种方法的可行性和好处已得到充分证明。传统黑人学院和大学（HBCUs）的学生在国际项目中的参与通常非常有限，特别是在工程学科中。本提案旨在促进和促进hbcu工程专业学生的海外学习项目。学生参与国际项目的障碍包括旅行和其他相关费用，担心浪费时间和学分的损失，学习一门新语言的努力，以及课程顾问对国际项目的普遍无知。拟议的项目将尽量减少这些障碍的影响。该项目将涉及在欧洲工程师和企业家全球教育（GE4）组织、企业合作伙伴和研究实验室的支持下，拥有abet认证工程课程的主要hbcu与法国、德国和西班牙的选定机构之间的合作。通过有效地利用中间的夏季，该计划将在不显着增加学位时间的情况下适应当前的课程要求。该项目的目标是使美国的hbcu和欧洲的大学能够促进工程专业学生的国际交流，提高学生的外语技能和理解不同社会和技术文化的能力，并学习如何在跨国工程团队中工作。课程评估、专门的外语和文化沉浸课程的开发以及向潜在学生推广该计划是提出的主要活动。该提案的智力价值集中在更好地了解欧洲的教育系统，努力调整工程专业学生的课程要求，使他们能够在不推迟毕业的情况下在国外度过一个学期或更长时间。参与该项目的团队由几所hbcu和欧洲大学工程学院的教师和管理人员、GE4的代表以及校园海外留学项目的负责人组成。如果成功，该项目将为显著增加代表性不足的工程师的数量奠定基础，这些工程师将经历国际学习和工作作为其教育的一部分。该项目的广泛影响源于这样一个事实，即参加交流项目的学生属于传统上没有参加国际项目的少数族裔。建议的课程发展，以提高传统的外语课程，包括文化问题，特别是针对工程专业的学生，将对其他大学的学生也有价值。课程材料将根据要求提供给其他大学。

Current trends in communication and information technologies, government deregulation, andinterest in environmental concerns and data sharing have led to globalization of the engineeringprofession. Employers are increasingly stressing the need for a global perspective in engineeringcurricula. In recent years, engineering accreditation requirements have been revised toemphasize, among other things, an ability to understand societal and global issues of importanceto engineers. In response, the engineering academic community is reconfiguring its curricula.One commonly used tool is to offer engineering students an opportunity to study abroad andwork on projects in multinational companies in collaboration with students in foreign countries.The feasibility and benefits of this approach have been well documented. The participation ofstudents from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in international programs isgenerally very limited, especially in the engineering disciplines. This proposal is aimed atpromoting and facilitating study abroad programs for engineering students at HBCUs. Barriersto student engagement in international programs include travel and other associated costs, fear oflosing time and loss of academic credits, effort involved in learning a new language, and generalignorance of international programs at the curriculum advisor level. The proposed project willattempt to minimize the effect of these barriers. The project will involve collaborative workamong major HBCUs that have ABET-accredited engineering programs and selected institutionsin France, Germany and Spain through the support of the Global Education for EuropeanEngineers and Entrepreneurs (GE4) organization, corporate partners and research laboratories.By effectively using the intervening summer periods, the program will be structured to fit withincurrent curriculum requirements without significantly increasing the time-to-degree.The goals of the project are to enable HBCUs in the US and universities in Europe to promoteinternational exchange of engineering students, to enhance the foreign language skills and theability of students to understand different social and technical cultures, and to learn how to workin multi-national engineering teams. The evaluation of the curricula, development of specialforeign language and cultural immersion courses and promotion of the program to potentialstudents are the main activities proposed.The intellectual merit of the proposal is centered on a better understanding of the educationalsystems in Europe in an effort to align curriculum requirements for engineering students to allowthem to spend a semester or more abroad without delaying graduation. The team assembled towork on the project consists of faculty and administrators in colleges of engineering at severalHBCUs and European universities, representatives from GE4, and directors of study abroadprograms at the campuses. If successful, the project will lay the foundation for significantincreases in the number of underrepresented engineers who experience international study andwork as part of their education. The broader impact of the project is rooted in the fact that thestudent participants in the exchange program belong to underrepresented minorities that havetraditionally not participated in international programs. The proposed course development toenhance traditional foreign language courses to include cultural issues especially targeted toengineering students will be of value to students in other universities also. The course materialwill be made available to other universities on request.