AMES—Leaders from universities, government, industry, and nonprofits will gather at Iowa State University on October 22–25 for the 12th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education.

The event is hosted by the College of Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State and will be held at the Gateway Hotel and Conference Center.

The colloquium, under the theme of “Engineering for the Future—Global Pathways,” will provide a forum to discuss and share ideas and best practices pertaining to the education of engineers for today’s global workplace.

“We’ve been hearing a lot about ‘globalization’ in various contexts, but for engineers the idea is very real and relevant,” said Diane Rover, associate dean for academic and student affairs in the College of Engineering and a member of the colloquium steering committee. “Increasingly, engineers are interacting with their counterparts around the world, often seeking solutions to problems of a global scope. It’s our responsibility to be sure that we are educating a generation of engineers who are fully prepared to respond.”

A series of pre-conference workshops will be held on Thursday. One of them, Meeting the Challenges of Cross-Cultural Virtual Work Teams, will feature Sue Bray, the executive director of New Vistas, a consulting practice that helps universities implement distributed education programs. Bray also serves as a globalization adviser to the General Motors Technical Education Program.

Friday’s program will begin with a follow-up to last year’s National Summit Meeting on the Globalization of Engineering Education. At that summit, leaders in higher education formalized a call to action titled The Newport Declaration, in which educators and policy leaders were challenged to “integrate global education into the engineering curriculum to impact all students….”

Other topics during Friday’s sessions will include Technology Support for the Global Workforce, World Languages and Cultures in Engineering Education, Student Engagement, Global Entrepreneurship, Global Outcomes for International Engineering Education, and Sustainability and International Development.

Friday’s keynote presentation will feature Michael McBreen, president of the Global Operations Group at Wolverine World Wide, Inc. McBreen will speak about global entrepreneurship.

Saturday’s program will be highlighted by a special live telepresentation by James J. Duderstadt, president emeritus and University Professor of Science and Engineering at the University of Michigan, focusing on global outcomes.

Contacts:

Conference co-chairs:
James Bernard, Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering, 515 294-5933, bernard@iastate.edu
Mark Rectanus, Professor and Chair, World Languages and Cultures, 515 294-4324, mwr@iastate.edu