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

该项目的重点是开发跨国学生/教师基于项目的方法，以整合研究和教育。大多数重大的实际问题，如环境、公共卫生和技术的获取，本质上是跨学科的，是跨越国界的。在国际上，我们还面临着转变高等教育本身的挑战，使其更容易获得，并更好地响应我们社区的需求。该项目的教职员工一直致力于将跨国协作研究的模式结合起来，解决共同的科学和工程挑战，并在我们的机构改革中相互协助。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，这些活动是教师兴趣和热情的核心，同时创造可以嵌入本科生课程核心的机会。目前的项目建立在这一前景看好的领域的工作基础上，通过在美国和世界范围内创建一个小型大学联盟，该联盟将合作进一步完善、扩大和制度化这种整合国际研究、教育和服务的方法。这种基于项目的跨国战略有几个设计特点。优先项目：1)嵌入各方面真正的教师研究兴趣；2)可以在影响到所有方面的大量本科生而不是少数幸运儿的课程结构内进行；3)为解决实际的地区性问题做出贡献；以及4)与其他盟友建立深入的合作伙伴关系，包括行业、州和地方政府以及非营利组织。与日本仙台的东北大学在第一年的工程设计方面的合作已经创建，目前已进入第三个年头。与四川大学中国在成都启动了一个为期四年的关于两个地区面临的环境挑战的合作项目。为了进一步推动国际教育和研究的根本性变革，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，每个机构都拥有将本科教育改革与解决复杂的地区性问题战略结合起来的愿景。这在增加能够参与的机构的多样性方面尤为重要。第二个是传播核心小组在教育和研究相结合的多国合作的实用学方面吸取的经验教训。首席调查员所在的机构为这一项目的成功做出了重大承诺，包括释放教师的时间、工作人员支持和现金，总额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 on this project have been working with 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 Principle Investigator's institution has made a major commitment to the success of this project, including faculty release time, staff support and cash, totaling approximately 50% of the amount requested from the National Science Foundation.