International students' Projects as a part of engineering education

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 from different cultures.

The ability to work in international teams and with projects involving participants from different countries and cultures may differ greatly depending on the educational traditions of the students' homelands. We describe our international activities with a focus on international students' projects performed in cooperation with technical universities abroad in order to offer the students the possibility to train their international skills.

Developing and planning of such activities often gives some more practical challenges, such as differences in how engineering programs are designed, the differences in academic calendars and the amount of credits given for projects and courses in different countries. In some cases, the differences in academic calendars are so big, that it is a major obstacle in arranging common student projects.

This paper describes our experience in arranging common activities in spite of the named obstacles. The projects described in this paper are the result of our cooperation with the School of Engineering Technology and School of Aviation and Transportation Technology, Purdue University in USA, and Fontys Mechanical Department, University of Applied Sciences in Eindhoven, Netherlands.