Global Engineering Teams: An International Interdisciplinary Design

ExperienceEric H. Ledet, Ph.D.Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical EngineeringRensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Global Engineering Teams

• What?• Consortium of universities from North America, South

America, Europe, & Africa.• Mission: Deliver a unique international, interdisciplinary

design experience to engineering students.• Open-ended design challenges – many aimed at

addressing fundamental (humanitarian) problems experienced in developing countries.• “International capstone experience”.

Global Engineering Teams

• How?• Advisors identify projects & find sponsors.• Students from 2-3 universities form teams.• One week face-to-face kickoff meeting in Southern hemisphere.

• Team building exercises.• Background of challenge.• Design thinking.

• Six months of collaboration as geographically distributed team.• Skype, Google Hangout, email, etc.• Due diligence.• Ideation.• Engineering.• Prototyping.

• One week final meeting in Northern hemisphere.• Presentations & prototype demonstration to stakeholders.

Global Engineering Teams

• How?• Advisors identify projects & find sponsors.

Wrong Way:• Assume that we understand the

problems of under-resourced healthcare systems.

• Conceive of problems/solutions independently of stakeholders.

• Assume that solutions will be adopted by end-users.

Right Way:• Identify all of the stakeholders

first - not just end-users.• Understand the challenges (pain

points) of each stakeholder.• Experience firsthand and

empathize.• Keep all stakeholders involved in

the problem identification & solution development process.

End-user

Healthcare worker

District Healthcare ManagerDr. Franz Krige

Global Engineering Teams• Why?

• Obtain design experience principally similar to capstone.• Solve fundamental engineering problems.• Experience working on international, interdisciplinary team.• Travel!

G.E.T. vs Capstone• Comparison

• Survey…• All students who participated in G.E.T. and completed an ABET

accredited capstone design course from 2010-2014.• 15 students: 7 mech, 6 biomed, 2 chem.

• Compare G.E.T. to capstone for ABET outcomes a-k.• Scale 1-10:

• 1 = capstone superior.• 5 = no difference.• 10 = G.E.T. superior.

• For all outcomes mean was 7.31 (SD=1.13).• For outcomes most strongly associated with capstone, mean

was 7.85 (SD=1.78).• Mean score for every outcome indicated that G.E.T. was a

statistically significantly stronger experience.

Global Engineering Teams

• Summary• Programs like G.E.T. can serve as an enhanced capstone

design experience.• Challenges:

• Funding/sponsorship.• Identifying meaningful projects.• Logistics.• Faculty time commitment per student.

Acknowledgements• Marco Eisenberg• Cornie Scheffer• Matthew Parkinson• Rick Schuhmann• All of the students who

have participated in G.E.T.

• Center for Disability Services• Western Cape

Rehabilitation Facility• Amp It Up• NeuroTect• Innovus• RPI