Work in progress - identifying learning outcomes of a multi-semester international program in mechanical engineering

Global competencies are critical for new engineering graduates, but gaining actual international experience is difficult for engineering students. International programs are not easy to embed in tightly packed engineering curriculums. Additionally, programs are expensive for both students and for schools. Consequently, assessing international program impact is imperative. Understanding a broad range of learning outcomes contributes to sustaining and to scaling programs. Toward those ends, preliminary outcomes for participants in an innovative international program, the Global Engineering Alliance for Research and Education (GEARE) are presented. Work in progress encompasses written survey data and also data gathered in face-to-face "focus group" interaction. Students in the Purdue-Karlsruhe GEARE cohort report substantial change over time in accommodating to new cultural contexts but program impact differs across cultural groups. Purdue GEARE programs have been developed with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and with IIT-Mumbai. The Purdue-Karlsruhe group is the first GEARE group to undergo assessment