Two approaches to global student design projects
The increasingly globalized economy of the 21st century demands engineers that are technically competent, that demonstrate a practical and commercial understanding, and that can operate efficiently in a multidisciplinary team environment across time zones, seasons, and cultures. This paper will present two approaches to teaching global student design projects.In the first approach, more than 160 mechanical engineering and industrial design students and 13 universities in Australia,Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, South Korea, Sweden, and the USA collaborated with General Motors designers, engineers, and managers to design a new line of vehicles for the US college student market. The students at each university form one or more sub-teams that act as suppliers to the overall project following the traditional outsourcing model. The communications tools available to these student teams vary fiom state-of-the-art to low-cost, easily accessible systems. In the second approach, the students are organized into 12-person teams consisting of three four-person sub-teams. Each sub-team consists of two students from two different universities in two different countries. Hence, in this approach the students must work daily with teammates in another country, but this time with all the students having equal access to state-of-the-art communication systems. Each team is given the CAD model for the same production automotive vehicle, and is tasked with redesigning it in response to the customer needs of their assigned country.
Global collaborative engineering design Global teaming Global team teaching Global senior capstone design
Jan Helge Bohn
Mechanical Engineering (0238), Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
国际会议
上海
英文
193-199
2006-08-17（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）