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Adapting Engineering Design Model to Middle Eastern Culture: The Colorado School of Mines Brings Engineering Design to The Petroleum Institute

SUZANNE W. SCOTT The Petroleum Institute Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates

Abstract:

The 2003-4 academic year at the Petroleum Institute in Abu Dhabi has been the site of a rewarding and revealing experiment in implementing Western engineering design to higher academia in the Arab world. With funding from a consortium of major oil companies including The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, Shell, BP, and JODCO and led by a team from the Colorado School of Mines, the Petroleum Institute was established in 2001. The goals of the Institute include educating UAE nationals in fields of engineering (Chemical, Electrical, Mechanical, Petroleum and Petroleum Geosciences) that will serve the on-going needs of the oil and gas industry in the Gulf region. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company signed a nine-year agreement with the Colorado School of Mines to provide leadership in programs and curriculum design, with the goal of achieving ABET accreditation for the Petroleum Institute. As part of that effort, experienced faculty from CSM were brought over during the 2003-4 academic year to establish an engineering design program on the new campus. The program, modeled after CSM’s cutting edge EPICS Program (Engineering Practices Introductory Course Sequence) was given the new acronym of STEPS (Strategies for Team-based Engineering Problem Solving). The translation of the program to the other-cultural setting has brought challenges to all major emphases of the Program – teamwork, communications, problem-solving, mentoring, and graphics. This paper will attempt to identify the unique Arabic cultural aspects which either resist or embrace the Western design model, and begin to identify a common core curriculum for engineering design programs in the Middle East.

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright©2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Scott, S. (2005, June), Adapting Engineering Design Model To Middle Eastern Culture: The Colorado School Of Mines Brings Engineering Design To The Petroleum Institute Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--15593