A MODEL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING GLOBAL
EDUCATION PROGRAM:
NEW PARTNERSHIPS IN EDUCATION
ABSTRACT
A new language competency-based global undergraduate mechanical engineering education program is being developed to produce "globally educated" mechanical engineers ready for practice in the 21st century. The global education process begins with recruiting potential student participants from middle and high schools, chosen because of their strong language and academic programs. Students from these schools are not only well educated in math, science, and English, but they are also well-schooled in a foreign language. Typically the incoming students have studied French, Spanish, or German, but we also find students in increasing numbers who have had Japanese or Chinese. At Michigan State University they complete their language and cultural awareness preparation during the first two years. In the third year the students study and co-op abroad. In the fourth year the students serve as recruiters and as mentors to underclass students in the program. Industrial partners participate by sponsoring students, recommending international academic partners, helping in the development of curriculum, and by providing co-op opportunities. This partnership program has the long term goal of involving 50% of the MSU Mechanical Engineering BS graduates in a global education experience.
INTRODUCTION
Engineering educators are beginning to realize the importance of educating students for the practice of the profession as it is being redefined by industry. The electronics and automotive industries provide classic examples of the importance of having a global perspective in designing, developing, manufacturing and marketing products in the global economy. In the past these industries operated on the belief that the U.S. produced the best products in the world. Companies in other major countries studied our products and manufacturing techniques and then proceeded to discover how to do better. The result was a shocking success story as such companies became recognized for their ability to produce the highest quality, most effective products in their markets. They penetrated the global markets in a significant way.
Education programs in the United States have followed the same isolationist path as U. S. industry has done until very recently. Many engineering educators still believe that we have the best education process in the world and that we do not need to "fix" what isn't "broken." Meanwhile other countries send many of their best scholars to be educated in the U.S., but while many such foreign scholars ended up staying here, those who go back to their home countries have started a revolution in their education processes. They have recognized the best practices of U.S. education, but they also have called on the best practices of their own countries and other countries where they have studied. Education practices in several European countries and in Japan have begun to change significantly and are starting to produce what some believe are the best engineering graduates in the world. Today the U.S. is still among the elite in educational systems, but our pre-eminence is being challenged. U.S. industry is moving abroad not only for manufacturing, but also for engineering practice.
Engineering education in the United States must make some bold moves to regain its clear position of leadership and thereby continue to play a key role in building the future of the United States in the world economy. We must not only "do better", we must "do different"if we are to maintain our position as the recognized global leader of the world in engineering education. This was clearly stated at the 1993 ASME Mechanical Engineering Education Conference [Shoup, 1993] and again recently in the editorial by Russell C. Jones, Executive Director of the National Society of Professional Engineers [Jones, 1996]. Also, it was stated in a study by Korn/Ferry International, and executive search firm, that the second fastest way to move up through the corporate ranks of a company is to have significant international experience [Lansing State Journal, 1997].
Motivated by the desire to provide the students with the best education for the 21st century, the Mechanical Engineering Department at Michigan State University decided to initiate a significant new program of global education. This paper discusses a new comprehensive, four year, language-based program to educate Mechanical Engineers for global practice in the 21st century. Our partners include K-12 education programs, U.S.-based companies with global interests, academic institutions abroad, and the language departments at Michigan State University. Through this strong partnership approach, a language-based, student exchange Mechanical Engineering Global Education Program is being developed which will take advantage of best practice in education around the world to prepare our graduates for outstanding careers in the 21st century.
FOUNDATION ELEMENTS
Michigan State University and the Department of Mechanical Engineering have had strong traditions of providing opportunities for international educational exchange. Under the leadership of former president John Hannah in the 1950s the importance of an international component in the education was formally articulated, and goals for achieving international opportunities for our students and faculty were set. As President Hannah stated long ago
"We feel we have no acceptable alternative to being active in the international field, nor can any university with traditions such as those by which we live. We cannot plan to educate only citizens of Michigan or of the United States. We must prepare our students to be citizens of the world."
This was truly visionary. By the 1980s global competition was severely impacting U.S. industry, and the public realized that we were in a global market where our competitors were in many cases leading us in their global understanding. The U.S. Council on Competitiveness published a document which clearly stated where we stood on new and emerging technologies. The United States was falling behind. Dr. John DiBiaggio, while he was president of Michigan State University, declared that
"Now more than ever, we recognize we are part of a global society and must bring together our will and intent to assist with the needs of this earth."
In the early 1980s the Department of Mechanical Engineering developed a new partnership with the Rheinisch Westfalische Technische Hochschule (RWTH) in Aachen Germany. Under this outstanding program MSU Mechanical Engineering students travel to RWTH during the spring term of their junior year and take their courses in English. A professor from MSU accompanies the students for the term and teaches some of the courses. English speaking instructors were hired to teach the rest of the courses. MSU students participate in directed research in RWTH laboratories. In exchange, MSU hosts RWTH students as they perform their Studien or Diplom Arbieten projects in MSU Mechanical Engineering laboratories. Since its beginning approximately 10% of the MSU Mechanical Engineering graduates have participated in this model program, and an average of 10 RWTH students typically have come to MSU for study each year.
In 1993 representatives from three Leuven Network schools of the European ERASMUS program - TU Delft, KU Leuven, and NTH Trondheim - traveled to MSU to initiate discussions for a new type of program. Representatives from MSU, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and the University of Texas at Austin joined in the discussions, and the European/American Course Credit Transfer Program was initiated. The heart of this program involved student exchange with instruction in the language of the host university.
This program has achieved limited success. Several students from MSU and the University of Texas have studied at TU Delft and KU Leuven. For the U.S. students lack of competence in the host language is a major problem. Both TU Delft and KU Leuven teach some courses in English, and informal agreements have including teaching one course in English for our students. While these schools do have special language programs that are for incoming international students, adequate language fluency is difficult to achieve in a few weeks. The language problem needs to be addressed. Along with language, mutual cultural understanding was found to be important to the success of the educational program.
At Michigan State University, President Peter McPherson recently established a strong team of educators and industry friends to study international programs at Michigan State University and to set new goals for the university in terms of internationalization of our students' educational experiences. President McPherson is former director of the U.S. AID program and is committed to global understanding as a part of our students' education. He set a goal that 40% of each year's graduating class shall have a meaningful study abroad experience, clearly reinforcing the idea that better global understanding is critical for success in the 21st century.
THE NEW MODEL PROGRAM
In each of the past three years a poll was conducted of the incoming mechanical engineering freshmen at MSU to determine what fraction of them had at least two years of high school language. We found that about 80% of the students responded in the affirmative. Spanish was usually more prevalent than French or German. Chinese was also mentioned, and recently we have found students with two to three years of Japanese. We decided to take advantage of this basic language education to build a new language-and-culture-based model curriculum for global education of our mechanical engineering students.
A flow diagram is shown in Figure 1 that describes the key elements of the program. We begin with a pool of students in the K-12 system who have an interest in engineering as a career. Typically these students are told by their counselors that they need strong math and science backgrounds at the point of high school graduation. Our message to the student is that this is not enough. They also need strong communication skills in the English language, and they will also need to understand other cultures and to speak a foreign language to be strong engineers in the 21st century. These students make up the first pool of potential engineering students. The students who have strong communication skills in English and another language, strong math and science background, plus deep cultural understanding at the point of high school graduation will be the engineering leadership of the future.
We begin our program by contacting middle and high school academic and language counselors and advisers and establishing opportunities to speak with their students about the importance of the global aspects of engineering education in the next century. Our message to the students is that there are four pre-engineering academic areas they need to be prepared in. They need the traditional math and science background, but they also need strong English communication skills plus foreign language competence. In this way, we will be able to recruit students who are properly prepared for their Mechanical Engineering education and subsequent practice.
The chairs of the Romance and Classical Language Department and the Linguistics and Language Department at Michigan State University enthusiastically support this program. In fact, they are contacting the language program directors in schools across the state of Michigan to inform them of this new program and to enlist their help in establishing the visits to talk with their students. We are very pleased to have their enthusiastic support. For the students we tell them that they begin engineering education in the middle and high schools where they take their Spanish, French, German or another language, in addition to English, math and science. These courses properly prepare the students for entry into our engineering program at the university level.
Figure 1 - Process Diagram of the Mechanical Engineering Global Education Program
Language skills, like many other skills, are lost without practice. Even with three years of high school language instruction, students will typically be prepared inadequately to receive college-level instruction given in the foreign language. Our European/American Course Transfer Program partners convinced us of that . The study of Mechanical Engineering is difficult enough without the added problems of course instruction in a foreign language. The new ABET 2000 program provides an opportunity for us to modify our curriculum to establish a new global education program designed by the faculty along with our industry partners that will address global issues that will be so important in the coming years. The curriculum will be designed to prepare our graduates for global practice. How do we propose to accomplish this global understanding of the profession of engineering in the best possible way?
The basic elements of the program, once Pool 2 students enter, are outlined here:
It should be noted that industrial sponsors will have the opportunity to serve on the Industrial Advisory Board for the Global Mechanical Engineering Program. As a member of the Board, a company will have input into the development of the curriculum, identification of partner academic institutions, and co-op operations. Additionally, a company can have a direct hand in educating our students by addressing special needs for their companies. For example, they may help us to develop academic option programs such as an Automotive Option or an European Design Option.
The choice of global academic partners will be important. Some partners will provide specialty course options for our students that we do not have at MSU, and we will offer our specialty areas to their students. This is clearly a win-win-win-win situation for MSU students, our academic partners' students, our sponsoring companies, and the people of the United States. Other international partners will be key international schools for members of our Industrial Advisory Board.
Metrics of Success
We have developed an initial set of assessment metrics to guide us in the continued improvement of our Global ME Program. Items to be addressed include
Additional criteria based on the assessment data will emerge as we gain experience.
Exporting the Model
Exporting the model from Mechanical Engineering to other fields of engineering clearly is possible. Because the initial recruiting is for engineering in general and for Mechanical Engineering in particular, it is natural that the other engineering programs will benefit from this effort. The Department of Chemical Engineering at Michigan State University has already indicated that they want to join us in this effort. Projects that link engineering with business programs should also be exploited to students' greater benefit.
FINAL REMARKS
Many U.S. engineering educational institutions have been somewhat isolated from the rest of the world. The Second Law of Thermodynamics teaches us that we as a system cannot function while remaining isolated from our surroundings. It is now time to recognize that there is a lot to learn from educational systems around the world. Like industry, education must become global in vision and operation. This model will serve to link middle and high school educators, university educators, educators in other cultures, and industry in developing a new GLOBAL MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CURRICULUM FOR THE 21st CENTURY.
REFERENCES
Jones, R.C., "The World as Workplace," ASEE Prism, Nov. 1996, p. 56.
Korn/Ferry International, "Fastest Way to the Top," Lansing State Journal, November 25, 1996, pg. 5B.
Shoup, T.E., Innovations in Engineering Design Education Resource Guide, 1993 ASME Design Education Conference, March 24-26, 1993, pp. 223-226.
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