Development of nontraditional study abroad opportunities in engineering: a comprehensive program for China

Summary form only given as follows. A comprehensive program has been developed for engineering students at the University of Pittsburgh allowing them to acquire a high level of knowledge in Chinese language and of the culture of China as well as to have meaningful technical (study/work) experiences in China. This program strives to go beyond the academic tourism often inherent in engineering programs for non-European language countries. The keys to the success in orchestrating such a program can be summed up by the following steps: development of contacts, identification of sites, infrastructure development, outreach, involvement of multiple disciplines, funding, initiation of experience, and continuity design. The outreach component, stretching into the high school level, is perhaps one of the key elements for achieving the loftiest goals and objectives of such a program as this. This is because of the need to get students started early in language study so as to fit a meaningful international experience within the confines of a typical engineering curriculum