american / chinese cultural interaction – teaching applied ... · pdf filechinese...

American / Chinese Cultural Interaction – Teaching Applied

Engineering Design in China

Abstract

A cross culture educational experience in applied engineering design offered to American and

Chinese students in China is described. This summer study abroad program helps students

prepare to deal with worldwide interaction in engineering practice. A unique feature is a team

oriented design project provided by local industry. The planning, development and execution to

achieve the desired educational outcomes are presented in detail. Results of a post program

course evaluation are included. Sustainability and replication are discussed.

Keywords: cultural interaction, international collaboration, engineering practice, design

education

1. Introduction

Accessible broad band communication with readily available engineering talent around the

world permits multinational firms to engage in engineering activity on a 24/7 basis. Engineering

design information can be made available where ever “the sun is shining” in a symbolic

language understood by competent practitioners. However, how this engineering effort is

continued and added to can be impacted by differences in spoken language, local customs and

cultural backgrounds. The more an engineer knows about the problem solving strategies, work

habits, priorities and personal interaction practices of his international colleagues the more

transparent, efficient and seamless this process will be. Engineering education is currently

investigating and conducting a variety of experiments (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) to prepare its

graduates to deal with this growing issue of international collaboration in the practice of

engineering. This paper describes an attempt to address this issue through teaching an applied

engineering design course involving both Chinese and American engineering students in China.

What is presented is a case study, rather than a research finding, in which the planning,

implementation, outcomes and experiences of the first two offerings of this specific course are

reported.

2. Background

Following a joint memorandum of agreement North Carolina State University initiated a

summer study abroad program with Zhejiang University in Hnagzhou, China in 2007. The

program was to provide US students with both an academic and cross cultural experience in

China. The first colleges to participate were Management, Humanities and Social Sciences and

Engineering. The program consisted of six weeks in China with five spent on the Yuquan

campus of Zhejiang University. Three NCSU faculty and eighteen students participated in this

first program. The academic component required students to enroll in two three credit courses

offered by NCSU. The choices were Introduction to Management, International Relations and

Engineering Mechanics I. All were taught by NCSU faculty to their own students with no

Chinese participation. Courses were scheduled in the mornings with the afternoons left free for

tours, cultural and social events and personal exploration. Students were housed in the

International College of ZJU. Its mission is to offer language and cultural instruction to

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international student groups. The college provides housing, classroom, cafeteria and laundry

facilities for visiting students and faculty.

Interaction and exposure with Chinese students and the local culture was provided through a

series of scheduled events. Three afternoon cultural lectures by local ZJU faculty were arranged

covering Chinese history, minority groups and calligraphy. Two industry visits were conducted

to Wahaha (beverage bottling) and Alibaba (Chinese Ebay). Several social events were held

with Chinese students preparing to attend a 3+ program at NCSU in the fall. The first included

the Chinese students in a scheduled orientation of the city of Hangzhou. The second was a visit

to the newest Zhejiang campus with a dinner hosted by the Chinese students. Guided tours were

also conducted. This included a four day visit to Shanghai and a one day trip to Wuzhen, an old

Chinese water town. Two formal banquets were held at the beginning and end of the program

attended by college and university administrators. Two weekends were left free to permit

students to make their own plans.

The first year was devoted to learning how to conduct such a program and live in China for this

length of time. Some effort was made to interact with Chinese academic colleagues but it

became evident this would require more time and assistance. Providing real meaningful cultural

interaction between ZJU and NCSU students would require class participation by both groups.

The issue of involving industry in the program for experience of how engineering practice can

be affected by cultural differences also needed to be addressed. One solution considered was the

offering of a design course for both US and Chinese students with a project provided by industry

In the following two years changes were implemented to improve the program but its basic

structure remained the same. Students still took six hours of NCSU course work taught by

NCSU faculty without any Chinese involvement. Additional faculty and courses were added,

the number of students increased and more interactive events was held but the engineering

offering remained Engineering Mechanic I with no Chinese participants. Prior to the third year

there was a breakthrough in making contact with a Chinese colleague at ZJU in mechanical

design. A doctoral student at NCSU who graduated in mechanical engineering from ZJU

provided the author with an introduction to his advisor at ZJU, Prof. Gu Daqing. This led to an

invitation for the author to lecture to Prof. Gu’s design classes and serve as a judge in a ZJU

student design contest. We were of like mind in the value of having our students together in a

design course that would include a project provided by industry. This set the stage to achieve

the goal of offering a cross cultural engineering practice experience.

3. Planning

The first step to offer such a course in 2010 was to develop a formal proposal that both

institutions would approve. A junior/senior technical elective in mechanical engineering at

NCSU was chosen for this experimental course. This could be done without any disruptive

impact on existing curricula. Moreover the author was already teaching a special topics design

course under this listing that could be modified to include a student team project. The new

course was proposed to include a series of lectures covering design related topics and a

laboratory for the design project content. Two groups of design relevant lectures were included.

One would deal with subjective aspects of design like: improving creativity and innovation, the

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impact of right brain/left brain behavior, the effect of Myers Briggs Type Indicator preferences

on design, and the role of synthesis and analysis in the design process. The second group would

deal with objective analytical aspects of design like design for: power transmission, dynamic

response, impact, assembly, strength and endurance. These lectures would be of ninety minutes

duration three times a week. The lab would be work periods for the design teams meeting on the

reaming two week days for two hours each. These lab sessions would also be used to review the

project status, respond to team concerns and plan future activity.

Each design team would consist of two US and two Chinese students. Class size would be

limited to the proper number to insure this composition for all teams. This structure was

selected to reduce the degree of isolation that any one student might feel as a consequence of

cultural differences. With the course taught in English the Chinese students needed to be

sufficiently literate in English to participate. To insure this outcome selection of the Chinese

students would be assumed by Prof. Gu. This resulted in his selection of students planning to do

graduate studies in the US. These students were of much higher than average academic

capability. To provide equally capable US students, participation required a Grade Point

Average of 3.0 (B average) or better whereas a minimum GPA of 2.0 (C average) was

acceptable for other NCSU study abroad programs. US students would also be encouraged to

take an introductory course in Chinese offered by ZJU along with the design course. This would

satisfy the six credit hour requirement of the study abroad program.

To provide a meaningful design project experience with all its real world practice issues a design

need would be sought from some local industry. One requirement for industry participation

would be a physical location that would permit a visit to the site to view and be briefed on the

specifics of the problem. The company would have to be willing to provide all necessary related

design information, drawings, etc. and designate an onsite engineer for continuing support. A

final requirement was for the company to send representatives to the ZJU campus to attend and

comment on final project presentations.

The program’s success would be evaluated in terms of the achievement of specific educational

outcomes and the degree of satisfaction of the company in the design solutions generated. The

academic outcomes to be experienced by the students were: 1. Collaborate in a cross cultural

project team, 2. Work on a real industry problem, 3. Deal with realistic constraints, 4. Define

realistic goals and expectations, 5. Establish a workable time table, 6. Produce a realistic

practical solution and 7. Deliver a professional report. Comments on the practicality and overall

potential commercial value of the solutions would be sought from the company representatives.

This was the substance of the proposal submitted to both institutions. Permission to proceed

was provided with virtually no revisions.

4. Implementation

The first step was to create a program designation and acceptance for administration through the

NCSU Study Abroad Office. This arrangement provided a source of administrative support to

deal with all financial and legal aspects of an off campus university sanctioned student activity.

The Study Abroad Office also assisted in marketing the program. Recruitment was conducted at

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campus wide Study Abroad Fairs and through class presentations in relevant junior and senior

courses. Several evening informational meeting were also conducted. The professional value of

the experience gained by interacting with international colleagues in a realistic engineering

environment was the incentive and payoff promoted for joining the program. A deterrent was

the cost of the program to the student and loss of opportunity to participate in a local internship

with its attendant financial returns.

A program calendar of six weeks was created with one week spent in Shanghai and the

remainder at the International College at ZJU. This was to run simultaneously with another

NCSU Hangzhou program. Course offerings of both programs were scheduled such that

engineering students could also enroll in courses other than Chinese language. The calendar also

permitted the two groups to schedule tours, cultural lectures and social events together. This

increased participation provided both cost savings and improved outcomes.

To find a potential industrial partner US based mechanical oriented manufacturers with

operating sites in China were identified. A number of large multinational manufacturers were

contacted with little success. A break through occurred when a colleague referred the author to

Caterpillar in Sanford, North Carolina currently supporting a senior design project on the NCSU

campus. This contact provided an introduction to the engineering manager at a Caterpillar

assembly plant in Suzhou. The engineering manager, originally from the UK, was sympatric to

the idea of involving students in real industry problems and agreed to participate in the program.

With Suzhou within three hours by car from Hangzhou this made a day trip to the plant possible.

At ZJU Prof. Gu made arrangements for all logistical needs of the program and initiated a

process to select the Chinese students. He also arranged to assign graduate assistants to help

with the design labs. Housing for the US students would again be provided by the International

College.

5. Execution and Results

The program has been successfully offered twice and will again be conducted in 2012. In 2010,

the first offering, twelve students participated, six each from NCSU and ZJU. This resulted in

three cross cultural design teams. To promote collaboration within the teams a “kick off dinner”

was held for all participants the evening before the first class. Everyone sat around large round

tables, Chinese banquet style, to provide for good social interaction. This event was used for

self-introductions of all attendees, student assignment to teams, presentation of the Caterpillar

project charter and establishing program expectations.

To make its equipment more cost competitive in China Caterpillar has chosen to target a number

of subsystems on its earth movers for cost reduction redesign. The subsystem they asked the

students to work on was the operator access ladders on an MWL, medium wheel loader. CAD

drawings of the ladders are shown in Figure 1. With only 60 scheduled man hours of design

time available Caterpillar agreed to limit its expectations to redesign concepts for possible

design specification at a later date. It was judged that the students could achieve this goal in the

time available.

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Figure 1 - MWL Operator Access Ladders

Scheduling the plant visit for the second week of the program actually helped promote team

bonding. The first week’s labs were devoted to trying to understand the problem, prepare

questions for Caterpillar and study two sets of relevant industry standards, one in English the

other in Chinese. This immediately introduced a language difference issue requiring team

members to help each other interpret these requirements.

The visit to the Caterpillar site demonstrated that team coherence had already begun to develop.

Observations of the ladders on the vehicle, questions being asked and conclusions reached were

definitely team oriented. Caterpillar’s support was demonstrated by allowing photos to be taken

in the plant, normally not permitted, and providing samples of the ladders to bring back to the

lab.

The design effort was now into the end of the second week with only three weeks remaining to

complete the project. An interesting issue that arose was that Caterpillar uses ProE software

which was not available at ZJU. This required a work around to receive existing design data

since Solid Works would be used by all design teams. To meet the project completion date a set

of common constraints and project time line was developed to help teams meet intermediate

targets. As time progressed social interaction, friendships and team unity increased. The

teams would have lunches together with the ZJU students introducing NCSU students to

Chinese dishes. The Chinese students were hosted to an American style dinner prepared by the

US students in the kitchen of a local café. In return the Chinese students took their American

counterparts on an all-day outing to the Dragon Boat Festival, an important mid-summer

Chinese holiday. Teams would also sit together in the lectures to help each other with the class

materials. The value of the cross cultural experience in the class and design teams was

obviously much richer than that of US students in classes with no Chinese participation.

For the formal oral project presentation a common Caterpillar power point template was

adopted. Guidelines for the format and allotted presentation time were established. All team

members were required to participate. A practice presentation was planned for the day prior to

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the final presentation. Caterpillar informed the class that the presentation would have to be a

day earlier to accommodate a change in their schedule. This eliminated time the teams had

counted on for last minute changes. It was a good experience in dealing with the real world.

The ZJU’s Mechanical Engineering Department hosted Caterpillar to a formal luncheon. Copies

of the final design presentation slides were provided to all attendees. The quality of the work

produced is exemplified by the sample of one team’s solution in Figure 2. Caterpillar was

impressed by the level of engineering and professionalism exhibited by all teams. They were

surprised by what was accomplished in so short a time. Their satisfaction resulted in a

commitment to continue support in the future. Certificates of program completion were

awarded by Caterpillar to all students. The design shown in Figure 2 was selected for detail

specification resulting in a 28 percent projected manufacturing cost savings.

In 2011 eighteen students participated in the second course offering. This resulted in four

regular teams and one two participant team. This was done to experiment with how a smaller

team would perform. The program structure was kept the same with one significant change. To

provide more design time the project charter was provided earlier and the plant visit was moved

to the first week of the course. Another change was the course offering was included as part of

the regular NCSU–ZJU Summer Study Abroad program initiated in 2007. It became the

replacement for the introductory Engineering Mechanics course. This arrangement decreased

program administrative requirements while increasing cost effectiveness and operational

efficiency.

The problem proposed for year two dealt primarily with assembly time reduction. The

subsystem was an MWL wheel panel cover shown in Figure 3. A 100 mm fire hose access hole

was also required. The original subsystem consisted of 51 separate parts of which over 80%

were fasteners. The teams worked diligently to reduce the part count in the panel subsystem by

reconfiguring the design while maintaining its functionality. The result was not only a reduction

in assembly time but its overall cost also.

Several operational decisions concerning

motivation, creation of feasible and practical proposed redesign

well done for each student. One

This competition provided motivation while eliminating concerns about one project being more

difficult or easier than another.

design constraints, agreed to and

The final common operational feature was that all teams would adhere to a common set of goals

to be achieved according to a prescribed schedule.

beginning of the project to assist them in

each team was reviewed at the end of

scheduled sponsor presentation.

week for the panel design project.

.

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concerning project activity were adopted to promote

motivation, creation of feasible and practical proposed redesigns as well as satisfaction of a job

One decision was that all teams would work on the same problem


difficult or easier than another. The second operational decision was that a common set of

and adopted by all teams, would further level the playing field


to be achieved according to a prescribed schedule. This was provided to each team

assist them in the time management of their effort.

each team was reviewed at the end of each week to insure completion of all tasks

presentation. Shown in Figure 4 is a listing of the tasks to be completed each

for the panel design project.

promote student

as well as satisfaction of a job

was that all teams would work on the same problem.


The second operational decision was that a common set of

, would further level the playing field.


This was provided to each team at the

The progress of

of all tasks prior to the

asks to be completed each

Shown in Figure 5 are sample slides from one of the teams proposed redesigns for the MWL

wheel panel. This solution consists of a single plastic casting and only

Caterpillar again expressed their satisfaction with the work of the students and indicated a desire

to expand their involvement in subsequent years

internships for the rest of the summer for students that might wish to stay on for added

experience in China at the assembly facility in Suzhou

on the details of an arrangement

Evaluation and Assessment

The conduct of the design project successfully provided the students with experiences that

fulfilled all seven desired academic outcomes. In large part credit is due to the involvement of

Caterpillar. The project charter

productivity and team work to produce practical solution

early team building required across cultural interfaces.

personal satisfaction was experienced by all

To determine the students’ perceptions of the value of their experiences a post program survey

of the first year students was conducted. A detailed presentation and

responses are presented in an earlier paper (

completeness.

Seven queries dealt with different aspects of the team experience.

agreed or strongly agreed with the positive features of working in teams, i.e.: interaction was

promoted, common engineering backgrounds made communication easier, social events help

team bonding and all team members made positive contributions.

mixed on cultural differences not being a

communication.

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wheel panel. This solution consists of a single plastic casting and only eight additional parts


in subsequent years. One suggestion offered was making available


at the assembly facility in Suzhou. That discussion is now being continued

nt and its implementation.

Evaluation and Assessment

conduct of the design project successfully provided the students with experiences that


The project charter represented a real redesign challenge that required creativity,

productivity and team work to produce practical solutions. This was accomplished even with

across cultural interfaces. A real sense of accomplishment

was experienced by all participants.


was conducted. A detailed presentation and discussion of the

an earlier paper (6). Only a summary is included

dealt with different aspects of the team experience. In general all students either

h the positive features of working in teams, i.e.: interaction was


team bonding and all team members made positive contributions. However, feeling

not being a hindrance to the team’s effectiveness


eight additional parts...


suggestion offered was making available


. That discussion is now being continued

conduct of the design project successfully provided the students with experiences that


a real redesign challenge that required creativity,

accomplished even with the

sense of accomplishment and


discussion of the student

. Only a summary is included here for

In general all students either

h the positive features of working in teams, i.e.: interaction was


However, feeling was more

the team’s effectiveness or restricted

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The appropriateness of the design project subject was raised in three queries. The students were

pretty much in the middle of the project being too difficult or too easy. Apparently it was just

about right. The students appreciated starting the project with the standards and liked

establishing a common set of constraints.

The students were in strong agreement with two statements dealing with efforts to insure a

professional presentation of results. They recognized the value of a common format and

template along with the benefit of practice.

Six queries were directed to their general personal feelings about the experience. The responses

were almost totally in strong agreement with a sense of personal accomplishment, enjoyment of

the design experience, the returns worth the time and effort, having learned more about

engineering and working with people from a different culture. All students would strongly

recommend the experience to friends in engineering.

Conclusions

After two years of experience in offering the program it can be concluded that the structure and

conduct of the course and design team project achieved the originally anticipated goals. The

proposed academic outcomes were met, students experienced personal satisfaction from their

efforts, cross cultural design teams learned how to function effectively and workable redesign

solutions were created for the industrial sponsor. This educational model assists students to be

better prepared to practice engineering in a global environment. Replication should be possible

in other countries and cultures. All this requires is the commitment of the participating

academic institutions and industry to provide the necessary leadership and support. The first

step to success is the identification of key individuals within these participating institutions who

believe this is a student need that should be met. This requires program leaders who can work

together and devote significant commitments of time and effort to the many details of planning

and implementation required for a smooth and effective execution. The vision is defined but

the execution is in the details

Unfortunately, there are drawbacks to scaling up this method of meeting this student need. At

present most Study Abroad Programs are essentially funded by the students that participate.

Asking junior and senior engineering students to provide the financial resources to support the

program can be a difficult choice when they can engage in local internships that provide

experience and financial return. The personal importance and value placed on gaining

international exposure and experience must be the deciding factor. The consequence is

recruitment takes significant effort. There are always those who would like to participate but

can’t for financial reasons. An additional deterrent to serving greater numbers is that large class

sizes will reduce the level of personal interaction between teacher and student so important in

this type of activity.

Another drawback is the lack of recognition derived from this type of educational effort to help

promote development othe professional careers of younger faculty. Why should faculty take on

the significant burden of time and energy required by such a program when greater recognition

is given to the same level of effort and energy devoted to research leading to journal

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publications? Even the author might not have taken on this responsibility had he not been

retired but still interested in assisting students prepare themselves for professional practice.

There is an answer to overcoming these drawbacks. If academia and industry felt the value of

these programs were worth supporting financially and professionally these issues could be

addressed and resolved. The question remains how interested are they in preparing engineering

graduates to function effectively in this globalized world of engineering practice?

References

(1) Riha, A., et al., Growing Globalization of Engineering Practice: Raising National

Awareness,, ASEE 2007 Annual Conference and Exposition,

(2) Parkinson, A., Engineering Study Abroad Programs: Formats Challenges, Best Practices,

ASEE 2007 Annual Conference and Exposition

(3) Ragusa, G., Engineering, Preparedness for Global Work-Forces: Curricular Connections and

Experimental Impacts, 2011 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition

(4) Gulick, D., Developing Globally-Minded Engineers Through Education and Experience: A

Panel Discussion on International Co-op/Internship Program Models, 2006 ASEE Annual

Conference and Exposition

(5) Zaugg, H., et al, Best Practices for Using Global Virtual Teams, 2012 ASEE Annual

Conference and Exposition

(6) Zorowski, Carl F., A Design Course for US and Chinese Students Involving an American

Corporation, 2011 ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition,

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