Working in teams can be a challenge-especially if your teammates are more than 5,000 miles away. This year, four Union students tested their communication skills while participating in Union's first virtual term abroad. The Union students joined students from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey in a complex design project, collaborating for sixteen weeks on the design, construction, and testing of a small, mobile . vehicle without wheels. Here is how the term went.
For Jill Hahl '97 and Brian Smallwood '97, both mechanical engineering majors, the decision to join the virtual term abroad was a simple one. “When I hear the word `international,' I'm there,” Smallwood says. The two were part of a senior design class taught by Ronald Bucinell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and adviser of the project. Hahl, who hadn't done a term abroad, jumped at the chance for an international experience; Smallwood, who had spent a term in Costa Rica, was eager for more.
“I had no doubt about it,” Smallwood says. “They made it out to be really great. They said it was going to be hard work, but we really didn't mind that.”
For Kira Sobczak '97 and Carmen McMurtry '97, the decision wasn't so easy. “I was already planning on doing another senior design project and had even already begun the research,” says McMurtry, a mechanical engineering major. “But the virtual term abroad was a project that I didn't think I'd ever have the chance to do again. There were just too many good things about it to it turn down.”
Sobczak, a civil engineering major, was initially concerned that her specialization might impede her a bit, but Bucinell assured her that her mechanical
engineering skills were sufficient and that it would be a great learning experience. “It looked like a great opportunity. I love to travel and gain more cultural knowledge about the world,” she says.
So the teams were set-Hahl and Smallwood with their Turkish partners Cengiz Kaleli and Tolga Kuntasal, and McMurtry and Sobczak with their partners Salih Zeki Tarim and Serdor Yarligac.
The Union students' base was a brand new virtual design studio-a laboratory that included a computer and equipment for video-conferencing. Their first challenge-and their first frustration-was finding an effective means of communication. The video-conferencing would not work because Turkish telephone lines could not support the bandwidth the video system demanded. The students turned to e-mail, real-time chat (which allows for nearly instantaneous interactive conversation), and Netminder (which let them talk with their partners as their words passed over the Internet); they also used a “white board” to exchange sketches and drawings.
A few bumps along the way
On opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, the problem-solving skills of the students were certainly tested. But for Smallwood and Hahl, there were human struggles as well. They quickly found that their Turkish partners were hesitant to accept any of their design ideas. “They just weren't very interested in working with us,” Hahl explains. “They sent us their drawings but wouldn't explain them.”
Finally, Hahl and Smallwood had to give in and work on a project that didn't incorporate any of their own ideas. “I didn't think it was going to work,” Smallwood says. “We were so surprised when we first saw it walk.”
The McMurtry-Sobczak project went more smoothly. The four personalities meshed better, and the group worked as a team from the first days of brainstorming to solving
last minute problems. “We were lucky because our partners really considered our ideas carefully and we got feedback on all of our ideas,” McMurtry says.
The final competition in Turkey
The students agree that the best part of the project was the final competition and the Union students' trip to Turkey. Meeting
the partners face-to-face was exhilarating, and the competition itself was remarkable. “The trip really brought everything together and made it worth it,” says Hahl, adding that the Turkish students were remarkable hosts.
The competition was different from anything that the Union students had experienced. “It was both crazy and intense,” Hahl says. The Turkish students were anxious because their graduation rested upon the success of their vehicles. At the same time, it was a celebration of the end of the year because the students would graduate shortly after the competition. They were joined by their friends and family, and the event was broadcast on Turkish television.
Both groups chose machines made by the Union students because they performed slightly better. In the competition McMurtry and Sobczak placed second and Hahl and Smallwood placed fourth.
More than just the engineering
What meant the most to Union's students was the international experience and the challenge of working with other students half a world away. “Learning how to communicate through all the barriers and learning to deal with a less-than-ideal situation with equipment, our partners, and our problems with the design was hard, but I learned a lot,” Hahl says.
“I am glad that I took a risk to do this because it was so different from other senior projects,” Sobczak says. “Looking back, it's hard to believe that I actually went to Turkey and learned how to communicate with people from another country in order to build something.”
All agree that the skills they learned are applicable to far more than just the field of engineering. “When you go out into the real world, you're going to have to work as part of a team, and that's a hard thing to learn,” says Hahl. “I think some people take it for granted, and it's not as easy as it seems.”
McMurtry points out that their experience is “impressive
because we were using our academic and technical skills to design something, but also had to be sure that we were communicating our ideas well and experimenting with different methods, always seeking the best way to get our ideas across.”
Now that the project is over the students continue to communicate, sending e-mail back and forth and maintaining the friendships that they have forged.
CREATING THE VIRTUAL TERM ABROAD
Last fall, Union initiated a virtual term program the first project of its kind anywhere. In the pilot program, two pairs of Union students were matched with students from the Middle East Technical University in Turkey and asked
to design and build a machine to accomplish a specified task in just sixteen weeks.
Ronald Bucinell, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and adviser of the virtual term abroad, answers a few questions about the importance of the project.
Q: How did the idea for the virtual term abroad emerge?
A: It really is an outgrowth of several campus activities, the most notable being the engineering curriculum reform taking place under the leadership of Dean Richard Kenyon. As the new curriculum was being designed, an emphasis was placed on giving engineering students more opportunities to gain international experience before graduation. This was partially motivated by the ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology) requirement that engineering programs demonstrate that their graduates have “the broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global/societal context.”
The use of communication technologies for collaboration with groups around the world is a growing industry. These technologies are being used by many multi-national organizations to conduct business and by many institutions of higher education to provide remote course instruction (distance learning). A Union faculty member involved in the College's East Asian Studies Program conceived the notion of using the Internet to bring Union students into contact with their counterparts in Asian universities. The application of this concept to engineering
emerged quickly, and the notion of the virtual term abroad grew rapidly.
A visit to the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, Turkey provided the last link. During a discussion between Dean Kenyon and the associate dean of engineering at METU, it was suggested that the two institutions begin a virtual term abroad program during the 19961997 academic year.
Q: So you were looking to expand international experiences for engineers?
A: It is important to educate engineers who can make decisions with
a global perspective who have the breadth of knowledge to understand the social and ethical implications of what they are doing. This is why it is so important to have engineering in a liberal arts environment, and why I feel our engineering program is unique.
Engineering is a global enterprise-you don't have to look very far to see that; just read the newspapers. The Engineering Division feels so strongly about this that in the new curriculum every student is required to participate in an international program prior to graduation. These programs include the traditional term
abroad, exchanges, terms in industry abroad, and the virtual term abroad.
To accommodate this, each of the departmental curriculums now has a term set aside for an international experience. To do so in the current program, students typically have had to take summer courses or overloads in order to graduate on time. The students are willing to do this because they see the importance of this experiences to their careers.
Q: But if terms abroad are so important, why the need for a virtual term abroad where a student spends much of the term in Schenectady?
A: Requiring all students to have an off campus international experience is not practical. There are several reasons students may not be able to leave this country for an extended period of time, including economic means, commitments on and off campus, and other personal reasons. Our minimum goal is to give engineering students an appreciation for the need to understand and study other cultures. The virtual term abroad does this while allowing the students to remain at Union.
What I have found in the pilot program is that students who already have had a term abroad experience want to use the virtual term abroad as a means of extending or complementing that experience. The virtual
term abroad gives them an opportunity to maintain contacts, stay involved with the institution that they visited, or broaden their international experience with another country without having to spend more time off campus.
Q: Given that international experiences are now crucial parts of Union's engineering program, where can engineers study abroad?
A: Engineering students can participate in the College's term abroad program, which gives them the opportunity to travel to one of fifteen countries. Engineering exchanges are in place with the University of Wales at Swansea, the Czech Technical University in Prague, the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland, the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez, and Hyderbad Sind College Board in India. Exchanges that are pending include the University of Timisoara in Romania, the University of Tula in Russia, the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.
The virtual term abroad program is in place with the Middle
East Technical University in Ankara. We hope to extend the program to each of the schools with which we have exchanges. The last option for engineering students is the international term in industry, which is just getting off the ground. It looks as though our first international term in industry will start this summer and extend through the fall.
Q: How did your belief in the importance of terms abroad emerge?
A: As an undergraduate I participated in a co-op program that took me
across the country. During my graduate studies I had opportunities to collaborate with several international corporations. In my professional career, before joining Union, I worked for aerospace and consulting organizations. Through these experiences it became very apparent to me that understanding the perspective of other cultures is critical to achieving success in our global
economy. I am convinced that providing our students with these opportunities will make them very marketable no matter what career path they take.
Q: Were you at all skeptical about the virtual term abroad project?
A: Of course. There's always a tremendous amount of anxiety whenever you try something that has never been attempted before. I knew there were going to be tremendous communication difficulties because the Internet technologies that we
used were, and still are, in the process of development-and I knew that communication was going to be the key to the success of this program.
It was essential that the communication technologies virtually transport the Union students into the same room as their Turkish
counterparts half a world away. This was the only way that the free exchange of ideas necessary to successfully complete the design could take place. You cannot design using e-mail; it's too slow. Design, especially conceptual design, needs to be spontaneous. On more than one occasion the communication technologies did break down, and I'm very proud of how the students adapted and persevered to successfully complete their projects.
Q: What do you see in store for the virtual term abroad next year?
A: We hope to involve students from across the engineering division in next year's program. One student, who participated in the term abroad in France this past fall, has expressed interest in working with a French student along with two Turkish teammates. Another student who will be participating in the exchange with the Czech Technical University in Prague is considering starting his senior project in Prague and using the Internet to collaborate with his classmates at Union. I hope that other parts of campus eventually will also utilize the virtual design studio that we have set up to collaborate with others around the world.
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