2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Engineering is becoming increasingly global with more companies establishing global partnerships, alliances, and cross-border mergers for increased competitiveness [1]. For instance, the recent merger between two tech companies, Broadcom and VMWare, required approval from twelve countries [2]. Thus, educators have been exploring strategies for incorporating global engineering leadership into the engineering curriculum to help students gain these complex collaboration competencies needed for the 21st-century workforce. Complex collaboration projects, which allow students to work together with diverse stakeholders across disciplinary, cultural, or geographical boundaries, are an attractive approach, but also result in conflict [3]. Nevertheless, boundaries, which can be seen as differences or unfamiliar practices that give rise to these issues, can also provide opportunities for learning to occur ​[4]​​[5]​. Hence, this study examines how students can be supported to build engineering leadership competences within global learning experiences. Specifically, it asks a) what boundaries were encountered in globally situated engineering design projects and b) how can these boundaries enable students make productive progress in their designs? 

This research is situated within a global engineering design (GED) course that tasked students to apply engineering leadership and management skills to the development of design prototype solutions for globally situated project contexts.  The course prioritized communication and collaborative optimization [6] by engaging students to intentionally utilize project management roles, methods, and tools. The study is informed by two theoretical perspectives. First, adult learning theory [7] guided students’ experiential learning with real-world challenges and tangible outcomes, as well as the application of inclusive teamwork and reflective practices. While boundary crossing concepts ​[4]​ allowed for the investigation of students’ team interactions and learning experiences in their design project settings.

Using a case study method [8, 9], this paper reports on students’ design projects from the GED course and aims to build a deeper understanding of the students’ boundary crossing experiences. This method is suitable as it provides insights into the complexities of crossing boundaries in an authentic global learning course. Data were collected from team meeting recordings and course artifacts to gain insights into the teams’ boundary-crossing interactions, conflict management and decision-making practices. The team recordings were transcribed and thereafter a thematic analysis was utilized to inductively code the collated students’ data to capture boundary-crossing situations and associated conflicts. These were then categorized and systematically examined for emerging themes around the students’ productive exchanges and learnings within their global team projects. Our preliminary findings identified three themes around students’ cultural and knowledge boundary-crossing experiences with associated cognitive and process conflicts, namely 1) unfamiliarity with global community policy and regulations, 2) unfamiliarity with design for global conditions, and 3) unfamiliarity with cultural and environmental impact. Thereafter students utilized divergent thinking and mental modelling approaches to cross these boundaries and advance their design work. This study is significant as it demonstrates focus areas and strategies for scaffolding students’ leadership experiences in global learning contexts. Furthermore, this research contributes to the theory and practice of global engineering leadership and learning across boundaries in engineering education.