BRIDGING ACADEMIA AND INDUSTRY GAP, THROUGH GLOBAL COMPETENCIES: INDUSTRIAL OUTREACH PROGRAM US-MEXICO Victor H. Mucino Professor Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA Email: Victor.Mucino@mail.wvu.edu Alejandro A. Lozano Guzm´ an Professor CICATA Quer´ etaro. Instituto Polit´ ecnico Nacional Quer ´ etaro M ´ EXICO C.P. 76090 Email: alozano@ipn.mx Edna Karina Alc ´ azar Far ´ Ias Doctoral student Faculty of Engineering Universidad Autnoma de Quertaro Quer ´ etaro M ´ EXICO C.P. 76010 Email: ednaalcazar@hotmail.com Elisabeth Sanchez-Goni Ed.D. Graduate Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering West Virginia University Morgantown, West Virginia 26506, USA Email: esanchezgoni@gmail.com Israel Aguilera Navarrete Lecturer and design consultant CICATA Quer´ etaro. Instituto Polit´ ecnico Nacional Quer ´ etaro M ´ EXICO Email: iaguileran0900@ipn.mx ABSTRACT Global competencies of engineering graduates have been identified as traits that are increasingly necessary for profes- sional competitiveness of graduates, but continue to be elusive and difficult to address in the engineering curricula. Study abroad and experiential learning programs have been invoked to address some of the global competencies with varied degrees of success. In this paper, a faculty-led program model developed by West Virginia University and several institutions in Mexico and the US is presented, in which senior engineering students from the US and Mexico team up to conduct meaningful engineering projects in industry in Mexico. Intermixed teams of students are formed and placed in various industrial sites to work full time under the advice of engineering practitioners and faculty mem- bers from both Mexico and USA. Global competencies are ad- dressed in the context of a project that requires students to work with peers of similar disciplines and level across language and cultural barriers. INTRODUCTION Global competencies in engineering education have received significant attention recently and have been described by various authors in somewhat similar ways, Hunter [1] (Numbers in brackets designate references listed at the end) and Widmann and Vanasupa [2], among others. They typically deal with skills that are necessary to successfully conduct professional business abroad or with professionals from different cultures. One definition of a globally competent engineer by Downey et al. [3] is one who is capable of working effectively with people who define problems differently. The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology, (aka ABET), in its accreditation criteria EC2000, makes a reference to the global context of engineering education in its outcome h, which was recently assessed by Sanchez [4] making use of global competencies. In all cases these defini- tions are consistent with the taxonomy of significant learning developed by Fink [5] in which global competencies are clas- sified in three broad categories of knowledge, skills and attitudes. 1 Copyright c  2012 by ASME Proceedings of the ASME 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress & Exposition IMECE2012 November 9-15, 2012, Houston, Texas, USA IMECE2012-86444 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ on 11/06/2013 Terms of Use: http://asme.org/terms ASME-PID 2012 BEST PAPER AWARD Presented at the 2012 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Houston TX, USA