Abstract:

In this presentation, we will report on the acquisition of skills necessary to be a global engineer in an 8-week intensive English course at Kanazawa Institute of Technology (KIT). This course was designed to prepare engineering students for the Boeing Externship Program, in which they were required to join satellite lectures offered by the Boeing Company, conduct a team problem-based project, and present their solution to the Boeing and other participating universities in Japan.

The aims of the intensive course were twofold:
1) enabling students to acquire skills for working in groups and to present their proposal for international design contests, and
2) improving students’ English presentation skills and public speaking skills.

The participants were 13 students (5 freshmen, 4 juniors, and 4 seniors) majoring in aeronautical engineering. Weekly 90-minute sessions were divided into a 30-minute English presentation practice and a 60-minute Aircraft Project session. In English presentation practices sessions, English language instructors taught skills focusing on presentation structures, slide design, and question-answer sessions. Students gave a 1-minute presentation every week to become used to speaking in public. In the Aircraft Project session, students conducted a collaborative project to apply for the GoFly Prize, an international competition in which engineers propose innovative ideas for single-passenger aircraft. The participants made proposals including aircraft concepts, detailed specifications, and design sketches. The instructors selected key terms related to aircraft development and operations and stored them on the Quizlet website for students to study outside of class. The students presented the project outcome at the end of the course. The researchers asked the participants to reflect on the project and assess the skills they used in order to complete the collaborative project. The results were compared with the assessment of global engineering skills needed for other extra-curricular activities. The data suggests that this type of collaborative, task-based project enhances the integration of students’ knowledge and personal skills and also helps broaden their future plans as professional engineers.

Keywords:

Problem-based learning, Global engineer, Presentation skills, Collaborative Project.