A Workshop For Indian Engineering Faculty Under The Indo Us Collaboration In Engineering Education
- Conference
- Location
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Louisville, Kentucky
- Publication Date
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June 20, 2010
- Start Date
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June 20, 2010
- End Date
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June 23, 2010
- ISSN
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2153-5965
- Conference Session
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Faculty & Program Exchanges: Internationalizing, Collaborations, Interactions
- Tagged Division
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International
- Page Count
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15
- Page Numbers
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15.114.1 - 15.114.15
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--16871
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/16871
- Download Count
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609
Paper Authors
Vinod Lohani Virginia Tech
Ricky Castles Virginia Tech
Ricky Castles holds a BS (2003), MS(2006), and Ph.D.(2010) in computer engineering and an MS in Industrial and Systems Engineering(2008, Human Factors Option) all from Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, USA. He served as a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant in the Virginia Tech departments of Engineering Education and Electrical and Computer Engineering. He currently also serves as a contractor for Imaging Science Research, Inc., Burke, VA. His research interests are in the area of human-computer interaction, knowledge modeling, and educational technology. Dr. Castles is a student member of the ASEE and the IEEE.
Gary Riggins Virginia Tech
Gary Riggins is a 4th year civil engineering student at Virginia Tech with a double major in French. He has focused his academic career on learning about civil engineering (transportation systems) in different environments. He spent the summer of 2009 conducting a self-designed project including job-shadowing engineers at the Indian Railways and attending the Indo-US Faculty Leadership Institute at Infosys in Mysore, India. Gary studied at the French engineering school INSA-Lyon for a year, and is currently studying in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
A Workshop for Indian Engineering Faculty under the Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education
Introduction
A one-week workshop titled “Modern Approach to Introduction to Engineering” was conducted in Mysore, India in July 2009 under the auspices of the Indo-US Collaboration for Engineering Education (IUCEE). The vision of the IUCEE is to improve the quality and global relevance of engineering education in India and the United States by fostering collaborations (www.IUCEE.org). Twenty-two engineering faculty members representing disciplines such as mechanical, electrical, civil, and computer science from different engineering colleges in India participated. The key objective of the workshop was to train participants to introduce or enhance hands-on learning experiences in the first year curriculum of engineering programs in participating Indian schools. Hands-on engineering learning activities, supported by two NSF projects, implemented at Virginia Tech’s first-year program are introduced to Indian faculty for meeting this objective. The main topics discussed during the workshop are: (i) how to introduce design experiences in first-year engineering curriculum, (ii) need to incorporate ethics instruction in Indian engineering programs, (iii) need to introduce hands-on learning to enhance early learning experiences of Indian engineering students, and (iv) how engineering curriculum development issues can be translated into PhD level engineering education research projects. The workshop was held on the campus of Infosys, Inc., a software giant in India. Two American students (Castles and Riggins), co-authors of the paper, accompanied the lead author and assisted in implementing the workshop activities. As one of the lead graduate students, Castle was deeply involved in developing and implementing the hands-on learning activities into the first-year year program. Riggins had participated in these activities as a freshman at Virginia Tech. This paper summarizes: (i) workshop content, (ii) feedback from workshop participants, and (iii) reflections of two American students (one PhD student and another undergraduate student) who travelled to India for the first time.
Workshop Schedule and Activities
The activities presented at the workshop have been developed and implemented at Virginia Tech’s freshman engineering program and are supported by two NSF projects. These activities have been reported in various conference and journal publications. A brief description of the NSF projects along with the activities follow.
A. NSF Project under the Department-Level Reform (DLR) Program (2004-09)
In 2004, a group of engineering and education faculty at Virginia Tech received a 5-year curriculum reform and engineering education research grant under the department-level reform program (DLR) of the NSF. This grant resulted in development of a framework for reformulating the curriculum of bioprocess engineering within the Biological Systems Engineering (BSE) department using a spiral theory approach. The twentieth century psychologist, Jerome Bruner, proposed the concept of the spiral curriculum in his classic work The Process of Education and
Lohani, V., & Castles, R., & Riggins, G. (2010, June), A Workshop For Indian Engineering Faculty Under The Indo Us Collaboration In Engineering Education Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16871
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