Global Technical Workforce course: Nine years, 11 study tours

Fifth-year electrical engineer Kelsey Shannon took the virtual-only class last year but audited it again for the study tour to France. Meeting the French students in person “demystified” the remote work, he said.

“It was much easier after the trip, because you knew them better. You could communicate through the virtual space better and read the subtext of messages.”

“It’s not just the work, it’s the people you work with, and how important that is in a business environment,” Tappel said, explaining that engineering students will need global competencies to thrive in the distinctive corporate cultures of multinational corporations.

Joint classroom work for the US and French students gave way to exploring Nancy. Alexis Belville, a first-year architectural engineer, said,

“We hung out with them all day. We got breakfast, we went to the aquarium, we went to a museum with them, we went to the park and played soccer. We taught them how to play PIG, the basketball game.

"And I have a core memory of me teaching them Cotton Eye Joe.”

The line dancing lesson became a highlight many mentioned about the trip.

At every stage, Tappel built in that free time to encourage developing multicultural skills. He had each student lead an activity or host a dinner. Dinner hosts had to plan a meal as though they were entertaining business guests: choosing a menu to accommodate dietary preferences, making reservations and leading conversation. Even something as basic as mastering public transport increased the students’ confidence.

“American travel is you by yourself in a car, dealing with other cars. You’re not dealing with a thousand people on the train,” said Shannon, who helped his group navigate connections for one side trip. The experience makes him feel ready for a solo summer trip he is planning. After multiple co-ops with Honda, he hopes eventually to work in Japan.

The group’s industry visit was to Lectra, the Bordeaux plant of an international company that produces automated systems for the fabric industry. Opportunities to connect engineering theory to practice are a feature of Global Technical Workforce.

Touring the plant, the students saw Lectra’s high-tech machinery (“engineers like that,” Tappel said), but they heard about Lectra’s global business.

Arunesh Mishra (computer engineering, 2023) enjoyed seeing how work works in France.

He came to UC from India and has done five US co-ops and one in Singapore.

The last three days of the trip took the group to Paris.

The host for that leg of their journey was the Université Paris-Est Créteil (UPEC). UPEC is a developing CEAS partner.

Again students got a glimpse of what engineers in France are working on, with a tour of CESAM, UPEC's Chamber for Experimental Multiphase Atmospheric Simulation. CESAM is an environmental vacuum chamber that allows the modeling of atmospheric conditions to study the behavior of aerosols.

The University of Cape Coast is a UC strategic partner. Kwuimy visited Ghana and UCC in 2019 to plan the study abroad program, and he later taught a virtual class with UCC Professor Kwadwo A. Dompreh. Grants from UC International support such strategic collaborations.

UCC’s international office helped with housing and travel arrangements for the entire Ghana trip, with staff members Emmanuel Abaidoo and Patrick Akai serving indispensably as guide and bus driver.

In Kumbasi, they were hosted by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), which has one of Ghana’s leading engineering programs. They gave an impromptu presentation about UC and engineering studies to high school students at the nearby Prempeh College boarding school.

They toured historic and cultural sites, including a wetlands stilt village, a national park, traditional textile producers, and Elmina Castle, the infamous slave trade depot. They joined dance and drum classes at the universities. UCC’s Vice Chancellor hosted a dinner for them and a UC group from the Lindner College of Business.

They bonded over their experiences and over some universal truths of studying engineering.

“They went into some classrooms, and they came out saying, wow, engineering professors all over the world are the same — they’re in there harping on units!” co-lead Nora Honken laughed. 

The Ghana group’s industry visits ranged from a multinational corporation to a manufacturing startup. Each visit gave the students a different perspective on how context affects engineering. In Accra, they visited Air Liquide, which supplies industrial, medical and domestic gases. They visited Zeal Environmental in Takoradi to observe waste management operations.

Temple Corbett, a third-year chemical engineer minoring in biomedical electronics and computing, was struck by people’s conservation efforts and adaptive spirit.

“You hear about how America wastes resources — water, fossil fuels, gas or oil. Over there, it was interesting to see how much they value the preservation of resources.

"I was surprised to see that they had a water heater and not just a ‘hot water’ setting. You had to turn it on and let it sit for a while before you could use the shower,” she said. “Seeing how engineers do work over there is an enlightening experience.”  

The group visited Nature’s Treasure Foods, a new company that manufactures snacks. Managers did a special production run to demonstrate operations. The group’s one business student was especially engaged, asking questions about the company’s startup and business plan.\

Visiting SIKA International, which manufactures concrete products, two civil engineering students suggested the company use its academy (which trains industry customers about their products) for outreach to high school students as future engineers. The CEO later contacted the class at UC to help design the project.