A Global Collaborative Effort to Enhance Design in a Mechanical Engineering Curriculum in Saudi Arabia

• Main Authors: Arif, Abul Fazal (Author), Abu-Dheir, Numan (Author), Bahaidarah, Haitham M. S. (Author), Merah, Nesar (Contributor), Wallace, David (Contributor), Seering, Warren Paul (Contributor), Tang, Victor (Contributor), Eleiche, Abdel-Salam Mohamed (Contributor), Shuaib, Abdelrahman N. (Contributor), Yang, Maria C. (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (Contributor), Yang, Maria (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2017-05-22T14:31:32Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 In 2008, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in Saudi Arabia and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) partnered together to develop project-based curricular material to be tested out in a new undergraduate course offering in KFUPM's Department of Mechanical Engineering. This paper details some of the unique challenges to collaborating across countries and time zones, and the approaches the KFUPM-MIT team used to address these. These approaches have so far included the establishment of a shared vision for the project and the use of an array of technologies to facilitate distance communication. The paper concludes with a description of lessons learned that might be useful for future programs that plan to engage in international collaboration on design education.