Engineering education across disciplines and cultures: A Mexico/USA industrial outreach program

West Virginia University and the Council for Science and Technology of Queretaro, Mexico, have launched an Engineering School-Industry Outreach Program in which students and faculty from the USA and Mexico reciprocate visits in order to team up and "work together" in industrial projects in realistic professional settings. Students from both universities get credit from their home institution and are assessed based on their engineering performance on each project, despite the evident cultural, language and environmental differences between people, universities and industries from both countries. While the main objective is to bring an international dimension to engineering education a proactive approach brings new perspectives to industry and academia from which new lessons have been learned. For the participating students it was made clear from the start, that they would be assessed based on their engineering performance, as opposed to language proficiency, but they would be required to "communicate" and get across to get the job done in a timely and professional manner. The industrial exposure and the cross-cultural interaction between students, industrial practitioners and faculty from both countries, provided the frame for a rather rich experience, in which each participant has a meaningful role and a potential benefit to draw. Many lessons can be drawn. However, while the main benefits are yet to come, one thing is certain; the cultural differences indeed exist, yet, students in the USA and in Mexico share much in common and being able to overcome these differences was not only possible, it was highly rewarding and yes,...quite fun!