This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This engineering education research award to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign will employ researchers to investigate the learning mechanisms and benefits to engineering education of popular and rapidly expanding international service learning projects. These projects are believed to elicit many of the competencies for future engineers described as essential by the National Academy of Engineering and engineering education accreditation boards. The results of this research will enable the development and dissemination of research-based educational materials for project-centered service-learning experiences for engineers. It will also lead to the discovery of models and pedagogical approaches for incorporating key features of co-curricular international project work into the mainstream of instruction and curriculum reform. International projects may be a powerful means to provide preparation for professional practice, developing knowledge and competencies in meaningful contexts that are applicable for both domestic and international engineering projects. The acquisition of these competencies will better prepare engineering students to participate in a more globally competitive workforce.
