2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

For the first time, our mechanical engineering program in the United States included students from institutions in India in our capstone design projects. We are partnering with five engineering colleges from India on a total of six projects. Each project consists of a team of six students, three from our program and three from one of the partner mechanical engineering programs in India. Each team has two faculty advisors, one from each country. The purpose of this paper is to share the lessons learned from the perspectives of faculty mentors, and students from both countries, and benefits of such a collaboration. Challenges that the students encountered include coordination of activities and combined deliverables for courses from two institutions, communication due to time differences and virtual nature, and fabrication of prototypes. Benefits include our students adapting how to apply engineering design to produce solutions considering global, cultural, social and economic factors by first-hand experience. Further, our students are learning how to lead and function effectively on a team made of international teams in a collaborative and inclusive environment. It should be noted that this collaboration is aware that our program must meet continue to ABET accreditation requirements for a major engineering design experience. The paper will also share data from the surveys of students and faculty mentors from both countries and recommendations for such collaboration in the future.