International Students’ Projects as a Part of Engineering Education

Anna Friesel

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Conference: 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah
Publication Date: June 23, 2018
Start Date: June 23, 2018
End Date: July 27, 2018
Conference Session: Cooperative and Project-based Global Learning
Tagged Division: International
Page Count: 9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--30709
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/30709
Download Count: 346

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Anna Friesel Technical University of Denmark

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Anna Friesel is Professor at the Center for Electro-technology, DTU Diplom - Technical University of Denmark, Campus Ballerup. She is also the president of the EAEEIE - European Association for Education in Electrical and Information Engineering, which is a European non-profit organization, with members from nearly seventy European Universities, most of them teaching in the area of Electrical and Information Engineering (EIE). Anna Friesel is a member of the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) Faculty Resources Committee (FRC). The mission of the EAB FRC is “to promote the continued evolution of engineering education and the career enhancement of Engineering, Computing and Technology (ECT) faculty through quality programs/products/services designed to advance innovation in educating engineers”. She is an Associated Editor in IEEE Transactions on Education. She collaborates regularly with many technical universities in Europe, Latin America and USA. Her research interests include mathematical modeling, system dynamics, control theory, and educational methods in automation, robotics, and in engineering in general.

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Abstract

This paper summarizes our international activities in the Section for Electrical Technology at the Technical University of Denmark, Center for Bachelor of Engineering Studies (DTU Diplom). Globalization makes it necessary to cooperate on an international platform especially in the fields of engineering and technology. We cooperate with many universities worldwide in order to make it possible for our students and graduates to achieve international competencies, which today are required by many companies. Engineering projects are in many cases teamwork of specialists from many different countries and different cultures. The ability to work in international teams and with projects involving students from different countries and cultures may differ a lot depending on the educational traditions of the students’ homelands.

In order to prepare engineering students for their future work in international companies, it is necessary to train their international skills, which include ability to: • Communicate effectively, orally and in written form in English. • Function effectively in international teams. • Interact with and collaborate on a real-world project with students from a different culture/nationality. • Schedule the project activities to successful solution. • Include all requirements from the project’s provider to final proof of concept. • Analyze, synthesize, integrate and apply technical engineering knowledge into a real world-engineering project. • Apply creativity and innovation in the design of system’s solution. • Accomplish self-study of new knowledge necessary to find the solution for the project. We describe in this paper our international activities including international students’ projects, EU-projects resulting in exchange of students and teachers and cooperation with technical universities abroad in order to offer the students internship in different countries. Developing and planning of the named activities often give some more practical challenges, because of: • differences in how engineering programs are designed in different countries, • the differences in academic calendar, • the amount of credits given for projects, courses and internship. In some cases, the differences in academic calendar are so big, that it is a major obstacle in arranging common students’ projects. This paper describes our experience in arranging common activities in spite of the named obstacles.

Citation
Format

Friesel, A. (2018, June), International Students’ Projects as a Part of Engineering Education Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30709

TY - CPAPER
AB - This paper summarizes our international activities in the Section for Electrical Technology at the Technical University of Denmark, Center for Bachelor of Engineering Studies (DTU Diplom). Globalization makes it necessary to cooperate on an international platform especially in the fields of engineering and technology.
We cooperate with many universities worldwide in order to make it possible for our students and graduates to achieve international competencies, which today are required by many companies. Engineering projects are in many cases teamwork of specialists from many different countries and different cultures. The ability to work in international teams and with projects involving students from different countries and cultures may differ a lot depending on the educational traditions of the students’ homelands.

In order to prepare engineering students for their future work in international companies, it is necessary to train their international skills, which include ability to:
• Communicate effectively, orally and in written form in English.
• Function effectively in international teams.
• Interact with and collaborate on a real-world project with students from a different culture/nationality.
• Schedule the project activities to successful solution.
• Include all requirements from the project’s provider to final proof of concept.
• Analyze, synthesize, integrate and apply technical engineering knowledge into a real world-engineering project.
• Apply creativity and innovation in the design of system’s solution.
• Accomplish self-study of new knowledge necessary to find the solution for the project.
We describe in this paper our international activities including international students’ projects, EU-projects resulting in exchange of students and teachers and cooperation with technical universities abroad in order to offer the students internship in different countries.
Developing and planning of the named activities often give some more practical challenges, because of:
• differences in how engineering programs are designed in different countries,
• the differences in academic calendar,
• the amount of credits given for projects, courses and internship.
In some cases, the differences in academic calendar are so big, that it is a major obstacle in arranging common students’ projects. This paper describes our experience in arranging common activities in spite of the named obstacles.
AU - Anna Friesel
CY - Salt Lake City, Utah
DA - 2018/06/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - International Students’ Projects as a Part of Engineering Education
UR - https://peer.asee.org/30709
DO - 10.18260/1-2--30709
ER -