Features: July 1, 2002

Global Engineering Program Makes Major Strides

At the recent annual meeting of the Global Engineering Education Exchange (Global E³) held in June in Munich, Germany, university presidents, industry executives, and high-level government representatives discussed how to further increase global opportunities for undergraduate engineering students.

"The goal of Global E³ is to more broadly educate the global engineer by offering enhanced opportunities to undergraduate engineering students to study abroad," said Prof. Lester Gerhardt, associate dean of engineering and a principal initiator of the program.

Rensselaer has played a major role in the formation, growth, and conduct of this now internationally recognized program, according to Gerhardt. "Expanding our global reach is fundamental to the Rensselaer Plan, and is actively being considered by the campuswide International Programs Working Group," Gerhardt said.

Currently there are about 90 member universities in 17 countries. Plans for the future include the creation of internationally based distance-learning courses and expansion of the program into research in addition to current academic and internship opportunities.