Expanding Extracurricular Learning Opportunities Through International Engineering Student and Faculty Exchange

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Expanding Extracurricular Learning Opportunities
Through International Engineering Student and
Faculty Exchange

• Dr. Mark PolczynskiEngineering
  DirectorEngineering Management ProgramMarquette
  UniversityCollege of Engineeringmark.polczynski_at_
  marquette.edu

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• Topics
• Changes in the Engineering Profession Where are
  the Engineers?
• Impact on Engineering Engineering
  Education What to Do vs. How to Do It
• The Program International Engineering Research
  and Exchange
• Initial Activities and Results July 2005 Site
  Visits in Poland
• Extracurricular Learning Opportunities

3

• A Brief Personal Bio
• 1970-72 Allen Bradley
• 1978-84 Cutler-Hammer
• 1984-86 Square D
• 1986-91 A.O. Smith
• 1991-04 Eaton
• 2005 Marquette University

Where have all the engineers gone!
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• There is absolutely no question that
• The worlds dependence on technology and
  technologists is increasing rapidly, and
• Technology and technologists are key elements of
  a thriving economy,
• So the world needs more technologists,
• But

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• Many companies are striving to grow sales and
  profits
• While simultaneously reducing tangible assets,
  including
• Buildings,
• Machines and equipment,
• People, including high-cost, high-maintenance
  engineering staffs,
• A trend which is being accelerated by

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• 1. Migration of engineering to low cost
  countries (LCCs)
• Increasing technical capabilities and resources,
• Increasing accessibility
• Shift to electronic documentation, model-based
  design-simulation-testing, spread of the
  Internet, etc., dramatically improves the
  viability of utilizing LCC engineering to reduce
  tangible assets
• 2. Automation of engineering tasks
• Combinatorial research to develop
  pharmaceuticals,
• Genetic programming to automate software
  development,
• Etc

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• Impact on Engineering
• We know that manufacturing and services have been
  highly outsourced/offshored,
• And that major shifts in software development and
  IT are underway,
• And that similar changes are occurring in other
  previously high tech functions such as X-ray
  diagnosis and patent preparation are occurring,
• So why would we expect engineering in general to
  follow a different evolution?

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Model for a Global Economy
- Where are the engineers? - Who do they work
for? - What are they doing?
Virtual Global(i.e., LCC)Design/Mfg/ServicePip
elines
Company
Customers
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• Fundamental Premise
• Any engineering function that can be reduced to a
  well-defined (though not necessarily simple) set
  of actions
• Ultimately will be
• So can be readily automated or offshored to LLCs
• And ultimately will be.
• We term such functions how-to-do-it engineering.

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Model for a Global Economy
Traditional role How-To-Do-It Engineering
Virtual Global(i.e., LCC)Design/Mfg/ServicePip
elines
Specifications
Company
Orders
ProductsServices
Customers
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• Topics
• Changes in the Engineering Profession Where are
  the Engineers?
• Impact on Engineering Engineering
  Education What to Do vs. How to Do It
• The Program International Engineering Research
  and Exchange
• Initial Activities and Results July 2005 Site
  Visits in Poland
• Extracurricular Learning Opportunities

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Who will fill the front end of the pipeline?
Traditional role How-To-Do-It Engineering
Virtual Global (LCC)Design/Mfg/ServicePipeline
s
Specifications
Company
Orders
ProductsServices
Customers
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• Entrepreneurial Engineering ? What-To-Do
  Engineering ? Filling the front end of the
  pipeline ?
• Identify, acquire, develop, protect, and transfer
  technology,
• Generate new technology-based opportunities
  through technology commercialization.

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Entrepreneurial Engineering Education Question
Where do successful entrepreneurial engineers
come from? A. From the trenches. B. From the
School of Hard Knocks. C. From
entrepreneurial engineering education
programs. D. All of the above. ProblemThe
U.S. (and the world) needs more and better
entrepreneurial engineers now. Part of the
SolutionThe purpose of entrepreneurial
engineering education programs is to improve the
quality and rate of development of
entrepreneurial engineers.
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• Entrepreneurial Engineering Initiative
• Teaches students how to fill the front end of the
  pipeline with viable innovative technology-based
  opportunities.
• Generates new opportunities through project work
  focusing on technology commercialization.
• Systematically leverages university research as a
  primary source of new opportunities.

WIP
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• How is This Different Than What We Have?
• Entrepreneurs help build new pipelines,
• Engineering managers help run the pipelines,
• Entrepreneurial engineers help fill the
  pipelines.

WIP
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• Topics
• Changes in the Engineering Profession Where are
  the Engineers?
• Impact on Engineering Engineering
  Education What to Do vs. How to Do It
• The Program International Engineering Research
  and Exchange
• Initial Activities and Results July 2005 Site
  Visits in Poland
• Extracurricular Learning Opportunities

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• Need for an International Element
• Field of entrepreneurial engineering is heavily
  driven by globalization.
• It is essential to have a strong international
  element to the entrepreneurial engineering
  initiative.
• International Engineering Research and Exchange
  Program
• Creates an international learning and research
  environment that prepares students to effectively
  function on global entrepreneurial teams,
• Leverages RD resources at partner schools to
  significantly augment results and
  commercialization of the Colleges RD programs,
• Generates global technology-oriented business
  opportunities through cooperative student and
  faculty entrepreneurial project teams.

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• Note
• An international engineering educational program
  is no longer nice to have.
• Its not a cultural exchange holiday.
• Based on changes in the engineering profession,
  it is now a need to have program.
• It could be a stand-alone program.
• But we are tying this tightly to our
  entrepreneurial engineering initiative.
• Because we see the two issues as being
  intertwined.
• Thats why we went through the previous 18 slides!

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• Benefits of International Cooperation
• Conducting research at U.S. educational
  institutions is expensive.
• Expanding research capabilities and
  course/program offerings is difficult, -
  Barriers to entry.
• Replacing outmoded programs is almost
  impossible, - Barriers to exit.
• These are the same forces that drive industry to
  cooperation with external sources (outsourcing
  and offshoring).
• Universities that apply industry-equivalent
  sourcing models can significantly improve the
  effectiveness of their teaching and research
  programs.

Globalization can help develop cost-effective
means toaggressively pursue research and
educational programsthat drive new
technology-based business opportunities.
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An (Over) Simplified View of the Program
CooperativeResearch Programs
New Business Opportunities
Technical Capabilities
Partner School
Global
Marquette University
New Business Opportunities
Entrepreneurial Engineering
U.S.

• Of course, all participants contribute to and
  enhance technical and entrepreneurial
  capabilities and activities.
• But the general value proposition is to combine
  College-driven entrepreneurial engineering with
  strong partner technology.
• The following is an (over)simplified view of how
  exchange is conducted

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MarquetteUniversity
Students
Faculty
Partner School
PartnerSchool
Students
Faculty
Marquette
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• Current Status
• We are in the process of identifying partner
  universities interested and capable of becoming
  involved in this international engineering
  cooperative research and student/faculty exchange
  program.
• Current focus is on Central Europe, and Poland in
  particular

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• Why Poland?
• Target of outsourcing by U.S. businesses,
  increasing the opportunity for industrial
  participation in research commercialization,
• Well-developed technical educational system
  (lt130,000 engineering students!), increases
  probability of forming productive relationships,
• Technical universities generally have English
  language programs significant numbers of
  faculty/students have adequate capabilities in
  English,
• Has a cultural affinity for Western-style
  entrepreneurship, increasing the probability of
  success for this first venture.
• Has a high unemployment rate (19), needs to
  create new jobs in Polish businesses, and has a
  high interest in entrepreneurial engineering.

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• Why Else?
• Poland is not the only country with these
  characteristics. But Poland also has certain
  specific characteristics that made it a good
  choice for a first venture
• Milwaukee (home of Marquette University) has a
  large and active community of descendants of
  Polish immigrants, thereby providing a natural
  support structure for exchange students and
  faculty,
• The College of Engineering had a strong exchange
  program with Polish universities in the 1970s
  (especially at Wroclaw), and some personal
  linkages remain,
• A number of influential College alumni have ties
  to Poland, thus increasing the opportunity for
  industry cooperation.
• Also, as a new member of NATO and the EU, and as
  a strong supporter of the U.S., it is important
  for Poland to develop a strong economy and a
  strong presence in Central Europe.

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Also, its cool
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• Topics
• Changes in the Engineering Profession Where are
  the Engineers?
• Impact on Engineering Engineering
  Education What to Do vs. How to Do It
• The Program International Engineering Research
  and Exchange
• Initial Activities and Results July 2005 Site
  Visits in Poland
• Extracurricular Learning Opportunities

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• Site Visits To Date July 2005
• Largest five technical universities in Poland
  were visited to determine interest/ability to
  participate in cooperative research and
  student/faculty exchange
• Gdansk ga-dine-sk
• Krakow kra-coof
• Poznan poze-nine
• Wroclaw vrots-waf
• Warsaw war-sha-va
• Combined enrollment gt 120,000 engineers (40M
  total population)

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• Some Terminology
• Polytechnic University ? Technical University
• Rector ? President
• Prorector ? Vice Rector ? Vice President
• University contains multiple Faculties
• Each Faculty has a Dean
• Each Faculty contains Institutes
• Each Faculty has typically several thousand
  students

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• Site Visit Special Issues
• July is holiday season in Poland - not all
  faculty and administrators were available for
  discussions at these visits.
• All senior leadership positions at these
  institutions (presidents down to deans) are
  elected (three-year term, two-term limit). This
  was election year, with September 1 being the
  start of the new term.
• Some language barriers encountered, primarily at
  Krakow.
• All cold calls by the Colleges representative,
  with only e-mails and phone calls exchanged with
  key contacts before the visits.
• Copies of various documents associated with the
  entrepreneurial engineering initiative were sent
  ahead.
• Discussions were well and enthusiastically
  attended at all the institutions, with contacts
  ranging from faculty researchers up to Rectors.

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• Warsaw University of Technology
  (http//www.pw.edu.pl/)
• 35,000 students, and over 370 professors, 1000
  tutors, 500 lecturers and 340 teaching assistants
  located on three campuses. Current faculties
• Architecture
• Automobile and Heavy Machinery Engineering
• Chemical and Process Engineering
• Chemistry
• Civil Engineering, Mechanics, and
  Pertochemistry
• Economics and Social Science
• Electrical Engineering
• Electronics and Information Technology

• Environmental Engineering
• Geodesy and Cartography
• Mathematics and Information Science
• Material Science and Engineering
• Mechatronics
• Physics
• Power and Aeronautical Engineering
• Production Engineering
• Transport

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• Wroclaw University of Technology
  (http//www.pwr.wroc.pl/)32,000 full-time and
  part-time students studying in Wroclaw and at
  three branches located in the largest towns of
  the region. Staff of almost 4,200, including
  2,035 academic teachers. Current faculties
• Architecture
• Civil Engineering
• Chemistry
• Electronics
• Electrical Engineering
• Mining Engineering
• Environmental Engineering

• Computer Science and Management
• Mechanical and Power Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Fundamental Problems of Technology
• Microsystem Electronics and Photonics

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• Krakow University of Technology
  (http//www.pk.edu.pl/)
• 17,000 students. Staff of 2200, with 1200
  academic instructors. 215 professors and
  associate professors, including 77 full
  professors. The university has seven faculties,
  all of which grant doctoral degrees (currently
  about 230 PhD students)
• Architecture
• Civil Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering
• Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Environmental Engineering
• Applied Physics and Computer Modeling
• Chemical Engineering and Technology

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• Gdansk University of Technology
  (http//www.pg.gda.pl/)
• 2,500 staff, including 1200 academics. The number
  of students approximates 20,000. Current
  faculties
• Applied Physics and Mathematics
• Architecture
• Chemical Engineering
• Civil Engineering
• Electronics, Telecommunication and Informatics
• Electrical and Control Engineering

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• Poznan University of Technology
  (http//www.put.poznan.pl/)
• 19,000 students, and over 1000 academic teachers.
• Current faculties
• Architecture
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering and Management
• Electrical Engineering
• Technical Physics
• Information Technology and Management
• Working Machines and Transportation
• Chemical Technology

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• Some Polish History
• During WW-II, many cities were leveled (except
  Krakow).
• Many of the intelligentsia were killed off in
  one fashion or another.
• This included university faculty (even tenured
  full professors!).
• But engineers tended to be sent to slave labor
  camps, and many survived the war.
• So, after the war, there were no university
  buildings or faculty.
• They re-built the buildings,
• And replaced engineering faculty with working
  engineers (gasp!).
• The Poles say that this tends to make the
  technical universities practically-oriented.

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• So What?!
• Identified potential cooperative research areas,
  and initiated entry level activities with the
  following characteristics
• Low or no incremental cost, work already being
  done or planned by both partners,
• Highly synergistic, dont require significant
  changes in direction by either partner,
• High probability of success, clear and simple
  linkages between efforts,
• Make a visible difference, things that might be
  difficult to do well independently.
• Also identified
• One program-level opportunity,
• Initial faculty exchange opportunity.

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• Purpose Behind Initial Cooperative Research
  Efforts
• These initial opportunities might not ultimately
  prove to be the optimal area of cooperation
  between the institutions.
• They may not be the best opportunities for
  research commercialization.
• The focus here is to
• Open the door to more ambitious and
  highly-aligned future efforts,
• Generate evidence that productive cooperation is
  possible.
• Currently there is no funding for more ambitious
  and long-term efforts.
• But we dont anticipate any significant funding
  without some demonstrated ability to actually
  produce useful results.

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• Example Of Cooperative Initial Research Activity
• Dr. Irena Chmielewska at Poznan University of
  Technology is doing research on speaker
  recognition.
• Speaker recognition algorithms depend on native
  language of the speaker.
• This researcher has a large database of Polish
  native speakers, but desires to expand the
  database to other languages.
• Milwaukee has a large population of native
  Mexican Spanish speakers,
• Marquettes College of Engineering has a speech
  recognition recording lab.
• Marquette will record local native Mexican
  Spanish speakers per Dr. Cmielewskas protocol,
  which can then be incorporated into her database.
• Initial contact has been made with Milwaukees
  United Community Center to bring native speakers
  to the Colleges lab.
• Awaiting Dr. Chmeliewskas text sets.
• Strong commercialization opportunities.

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• Environmental Planning and Management
• Gdansk University of Technology has an
  undergraduate program in Environmental Planning
  and Management.
• This is a major issue in Poland that has taken on
  an even greater significance since entry into the
  EU.
• This program is conducted totally in English.
• The reason is that the focal point of the program
  is the Baltic Sea (which Gdansk is on),
• The Baltic is surrounded by six countries
  speaking six different languages.
• So, the researchers have selected English as the
  common language.
• Graduates from the Gdansk program that go on for
  a Masters tend to study in one of the other
  countries on the Baltic.
• Studying at Marquette University would be an
  attractive alternative, since the students speak
  English, and Milwaukee is on Lake Michigan, which
  has environmental issues similar to the Baltic
  Sea.

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Mini-Course in Entrepreneurial Engineering Plann
ing for Poznan, Warsaw, and Krakow in Summer
2006. Presenter is revising Strategic Technology
Planning and Development course being prepared
into a one-week format suitable for Polish
students and faculty. Providing this one week
course will - Stimulate future RD
cooperation between institutions, - Stimulate
future exchange of students and teachers, -
Introduce an important subject area not covered
at the Polish universities, - Give Polish
students and teachers an opportunity to
experience a class taught by a native
English speaker. Although significant numbers
of students at these institutions are enrolled in
English language courses, they often lack
self-confidence in conversing with native English
speakers. This is a major hurdle to
student/faculty exchange.
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• Some Observations
• Institutions are large and tend to be
  conservative and bureaucratic.
• Teaching loads are quite high.
• Person-to-person communication links difficult to
  establish and maintain.
• Senior leadership positions are elected, causing
  convoluted and shifting roles, responsibilities,
  and spheres of control and influence.
• It is difficult to determine exactly who needs to
  be contacted to generate specific program actions
  and results.
• Difficult to establish and maintain robust
  communications links with these individuals once
  they are identified.
• Since the field is new, there is no defined
  entity within the partner universities to
  cooperate with, i.e., no Faculty of
  Entrepreneurial Engineering.

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• Bottom Line
• Initial site visits were quite successful from
  the perspective of creating a base communication
  network and establishing initial cooperative
  efforts.
• But all of the previously-cited complicating
  factors are still at work.
• Robust communication linkages do not yet exist.
• Failure to rapidly and firmly cement program
  linkages jeopardizes this effort.

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• Topics
• Changes in the Engineering Profession Where are
  the Engineers?
• Impact on Engineering Engineering
  Education What to Do vs. How to Do It
• The Program International Engineering
  Cooperative Research and Student/Faculty
  Exchange
• Initial Activities and Results July 2005 Site
  Visits in Poland
• Extracurricular Learning Opportunities

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Entrepreneurial Engineering is all about
extracurricular activities

• Entrepreneurial Engineering Initiative
• Teaches students how to fill the front end of the
  pipeline with viable innovative technology-based
  opportunities.
• Generates new opportunities through project work
  focusing on technology commercialization.
• Systematically leverages university research as a
  primary source of new opportunities.

53

• IEREP is the ultimate extracurricular activity
• International Engineering Research and Exchange
  Program
• Creates an international learning and research
  environment that prepares students to
  effectively function on global
  entrepreneurial teams,
• Leverages RD resources at partner schools to
  significantly augment results and
  commercialization of the Colleges RD
  programs,
• Generates global technology-oriented business
  opportunities through cooperative student
  and faculty entrepreneurial project teams.

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• So What?!
• Clearly, the Entrepreneurial Engineering
  Initiative and the International Engineering
  Research and Exchange Program provide many and
  varied opportunities for extracurricular
  activities.
• But given limited time, money, and other
  resources, what are we actually going to do?
• We are focusing on two primary extracurricular
  opportunities
• International Engineering Research and Exchange

1
2
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• Extracurricular Opportunity 1 - Research
• Courses being developed and modified to support
  entrepreneurial engineering are all
  entrepreneurial project oriented, e.g.
• Strategic Technology Planning And Development
• Technology of Innovation Course Series -
  Software - Hardware - Process
• Intellectual Property Generation and Protection
• Initial goals - Link all student team
  projects with cooperative research efforts
  at international partner universities.
  - All student project teams to generate project
  funding through mechanisms such as
  NCIIA Advanced E-Teams. - Student team
  members travel to partner schools between
  semesters to participate in cooperative
  research efforts.

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• Focused Extracurricular Opportunity 2 - Exchange
• Goal is to eventually convert all
  entrepreneurially-oriented engineering
  courses to one-week all-day mini-courses.
• These courses would be taught between semesters
  at international partner schools.
• These courses would be taught by Marquette
  engineering faculty.
• Engineering students would act as TAs for these
  courses.

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• What Next?
• Initial goal is to get two batches of
  engineering students traveling to partner schools
  per year - Grads and undergrads, - 2-4
  weeks, - Summer break - winter break, -
  Starting in Poland Gdansk, Krakow, Poznan,
  Warsaw, Wroclaw
• First limited prototype Summer 2006! No money
  (yet), No students (yet), No course (yet), But
  initial projects being planned, And Poznan,
  Warsaw, and Krakow signing up students!

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Expanding Extracurricular Learning Opportunities
Through International Engineering Student and
Faculty Exchange
Thank You!

• Dr. Mark PolczynskiEngineering
  DirectorEngineering Management ProgramMarquette
  UniversityCollege of Engineeringmark.polczynski_at_
  marquette.edu