International, multidisciplinary design education

Evolving out of a SUCCEED NSF Engineering Education Coalition project in "Vertically Integrated Design", a comprehensive program involving students from several different engineering majors working in collaboration with students in another part of the world has been built upon the foundation of a traditional aerospace engineering capstone design sequence. The design program described mixes seniors in five different engineering majors with an equal number of underclassmen of all levels in a design team which is both "vertically" and "horizontally" integrated. Working in parallel with a team of engineering design students in another country, these students design a general aviation aircraft over a two semester period. The international collaboration includes an exchange of visits between students and faculty at the participating universities. Strategies for program implementation and for dealing with its problems are discussed.