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International Collaboration on Cyber-linked Engineering Projects

B.R. Upadhyaya, T.W. Kerlin The University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Abstract

This paper describes the collaboration between The University of Tennessee and two international universities on cyber-linked engineering projects. This activity has been incorporated into a senior-level course entitled Introduction to Maintenance Engineering, which is one of the four courses being developed at The University of Tennessee under a NSF-CRCD grant. The course is designed for seniors and first-year graduate students in engineering. The cyber-linked student project is an academic experiment to determine the feasibility of joint Internet-based work in maintenance and reliability engineering by students separated by great distances and coming from diverse cultural and academic environments.

1. Introduction

A cooperative learning experience between The University of Tennessee and two international universities is being developed as part of an NSF-CRCD course entitled Introduction to Maintenance Engineering. The course is designed for seniors and first- year graduate students in engineering. The objective of the course is to present the fundamentals of maintenance and reliability engineering. Students learn the principles of various maintenance technologies as they are practiced by U.S. industry. The cyber- linked student project is an academic experiment to determine the feasibility of joint Internet-based activity by students separated by great distances and coming from diverse cultural and academic environments. The premise is that the Internet has the capability to make this possible. Furthermore, in the current global commerce, the engineering activities of a multi-national company continue round-the-clock as the project tasks are shared by its affiliates in countries at different time zones.

The international universities cooperating with The University of Tennessee on cyber- linked projects are Universite de Technologie de Troyes, France and University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Both these universities have strong educational and research programs related to maintenance and reliability engineering. The paper presents the challenges and rewards of long-distance cross-cultural student teamwork. The following issues related to cyber-linked projects are presented.

• Development of a mutually agreed upon procedure in order to achieve the objectives of cyber-linked projects during an eight-week project period. • Periodic video-conferencing, web-based discussions, and sharing of technical information between international teams. • Presentation of project report. • Preparation of the joint final report.

"Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright 2001, American Society for Engineering Education"

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Kerlin, T., & Upadhyaya, B. (2001, June), International Collaboration On Cyber Linked Engineering Projects Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9455