UW, Japanese freshmen team up via the Net for course

University of Washington freshmen are building tiny electro-mechanical valves, constructing a solar-powered fiber-optic laser, developing next-generation materials for ceramic fuel cells and sorting through other technical challenges this term in a new hands-on engineering course - all with the help of some overseas friends.

Freshmen Stephan Gmur, left, Tim Chin and Dayna Dawson work on a class project for Engineering 100H: Introduction to Engineering Design.

The class, Engineering 100H: Introduction to Engineering Design, has teamed UW freshmen with students from the Tohoku University in Japan. Class members have formed international teams to work on one of eight projects. Although thousands of miles apart, team members use English to communicate in real time, bridging the gap with e-mail and interactive video.

This is the first binational class ever offered by the UW’s College of Engineering, according to Denice Denton, dean of the college and an instructor in the class. It’s the brainchild of UW material science and engineering professor Gretchen Kalonji, who developed the idea with Japanese colleague Tetsuo Shoji while on sabbatical at Tohoku. Kalonji, a co-instructor for the course, said the intent was to combine innovative programs at both schools to make a stronger whole.

“Both universities had taken imaginative initiatives in providing a hands-on engineering experience,” Kalonji said. “We decided a collaboration would be good for the students technically, in terms of solving real problems, and good for their professional development as well as for their understanding of engineering as a global practice.”

But students aren’t the only ones Kalonji expects to benefit.

“Each of our teams has faculty members on both sides of the Pacific working with the group, and our hope was that this would strengthen research ties,” she said. “That is already happening. Many of the faculty are making connections that could lead to research collaborations in the future. I think the benefits will last long beyond the duration of the course.”

The class is offered as part of a Freshman Interest Group (FIG), which are groups of classes designed to allow freshmen to explore various majors with other students of similar interests. UW students in the engineering class, for example, are taking corresponding math and chemistry classes. Of approximately 100 FIGs offered fall term, the engineering collaboration class was one of the first to fill up, according to Denton.

“I think that shows, much more so than just a few years ago, that students have an awareness they are living in a global village,” she said.

The first weeks of class proved enlightening for many of the students. Most of the effort has focused on getting the teams up and running.

“They are communicating, but at first it was a real challenge because e-mail is not as ubiquitous in Japanese culture as it is here, nor is use of the World Wide Web,” Denton said. “The Japanese students are second-semester freshmen, and many had not used e-mail at all prior to this course.”

The groups adapted quickly, however, Kalonji said. “They’re sharing data and they are very enthusiastic. The video conferencing capability is more important than I initially thought it would be. Seeing one another is important - they get to know personalities, can watch one another’s enthusiasm. You don’t get those things by exchanging e-mail.”

UW students also are taking a seminar in Japanese culture and society to help them better understand their distant team members. It all plays into the overall goals for the course, Denton said.

“We want them to get an understanding of what scientific research is about and how it works,” she said. “They also are getting an awareness of how to pursue international opportunities. Hopefully, this will motivate them to continue to pursue those opportunities while they develop as engineers.” ¶