NSF Award
2407457
There is consistent industry demand for innovative, globally engaged engineers skilled in biomedical design and innovation. The National Science Foundation supports research in the professional formation of engineers, recognizing that “engineering research and education are critical building blocks for the nation's future prosperity”. Engineering breakthroughs that address global health challenges require students to gain essential global competencies in engineering and health education. One widely successful way students develop global competencies is through international service-learning opportunities. This project will develop a new way for engineering students to gain global competencies that is based on a hybrid model of service-learning, meaning the students will be working together in-person and using video communication platforms to connect virtually. The researchers will develop a new global short course that integrates problem-based service-learning. Over a two-year period, teams of American and Tanzanian engineering students will complete the short course while being placed in hospitals located in medically underserved areas across South Carolina and across Tanzania. By linking international academic and healthcare institutions, this hybrid model will provide students who are unable or unwilling to travel abroad a means of participation while allowing researchers to explore how students gain global competencies in the new hybrid model of service-learning. <br/>The Biomedical Engineering Design collaboration at Clemson University in South Carolina and Arusha Technical College in Tanzania focuses on innovation of biomedical technologies in diverse healthcare innovation ecosystems. This collaborative partnership enables international educational opportunities for engineering students and is centered on expanding the global experiences and mindsets in the undergraduate engineering curricula at both academic institutions. Grounded in Community of Practice theory, which views learning as being both situational and participatory, the researchers will develop a new global short-course that integrates problem-based learning using best practices in biomedical engineering design and incorporates existing training materials readily available from the American Society for Engineering Education. The researchers hypothesize that students can gain global competencies through the hybrid practice-oriented learning regardless of geographic location and pose the central research questions for this proposal: How do international practice-oriented learning experiences for biomedical engineering design broaden participation and opportunity access? How do these experiences develop global competencies of engineering students? The project has two specific goals: <br/>Goal 1: Develop and test a practice-oriented learning experience to infuse undergraduate engineering education with global competencies defined within the Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) framework.<br/>Goal 2: Describe the similarities and differences in how students with different types of engagement develop cross-cultural, practical engineering, and engineering design skills.<br/>The researchers will use a collective case study approach and mixed methods research design to analyze the new hybrid model and understand how international practice-oriented learning experiences in diverse healthcare innovation ecosystems support opportunity access for a broader cohort of students and enrich the attitude of engineers. By establishing a common framework encompassing both countries during the design thinking portion of the course, students will be prepared to make global connections and develop global competencies in the local practical immersion component. This research will advance understanding of different ways that students gain global competencies and how it influences their attitudes and perceptions and approaches for technical problem-solving in engineering and engineering design.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
