International Engineering

Prepare for a Global Economy

In our increasingly global economy, it becomes essential that the US engineering and technical workforce clearly understand how engineering is done in other countries. This includes knowledge of and about international standards, overseas markets and the engineering cultures of other countries that give rise to those standards and responds to these markets. Global corporations such as Boeing, Ford, Toyota, Siemens, Sony, Hitachi, GM, IBM, GE, Microsoft and many others boast engineering and technology workforces that operate on an international scope. They have research laboratories, engineering design centers, manufacturing facilities and sales offices all over the world. Advances in communications have helped companies work multinationally, with teams of engineers around the world working together to design and manufacture products.

Such a global economy means that engineering and technology education must provide students with the tools and experience to compete and work in an international market. Although the equations of motion, Ohm’s Law and software tools work the same whether in China, Germany, Brazil or the USA, the cultural differences in the engineering work place are much different. The International Engineering Program at the College of Engineering and Computer Science at UCF addresses these issues by exposing the interested students to different cultures and languages – professional, technical as well as social. These provide an insight into how engineering is performed abroad and what ramifications that has on the US economy.