Meeting with Régis Kubler, professor and researcher, liaison for educational exchanges between Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Arts et Métiers.
Under his leadership, second-year students in the Grande Ecole Program (PGE) at the Aix-en-Provence campus have already benefited from this experience.
As part of the partnership AM² between Texas A&M University (TAMU) and Arts et Métiers, the institution seeks to attract American students to its programs and raise awareness of TAMU among its engineering students. This partnership aims to develop transatlantic exchanges at both the research and educational levels.
Since 2019, the Global Engineering Design module coordinated by TAMU has been offered to international students, including Arts et Métiers students. This distance learning course complements existing academic exchanges with TAMU.
What does this new module bring to the students' curriculum?
It is an international experience at home for students. With this specialization, we want to offer students the opportunity to carry out an engineering project in an international team with experts from industry and academia.
This course is offered to 4 to 8 second-year Arts et Métiers students as a supplement and equivalent to part of their PJT. We are looking for students who want to enroll in an international context and who are willing to bring a group project to fruition. An Intrapreneur student profile is ideal, explains Régis Kubler.
How does the Global Engineering Design module work?
The schedule is based on the TAMU academic calendar. The program takes place during the first semester. Classes usually begin during the last week of August, with a project defense with the group of American students in early December.
The first sequence, from late August to late September, is organized in a virtual classroom—at the end of the day to accommodate the time difference—twice a week.
The courses focus on project management in an international and multicultural environment. At the end of each course, exercises are to be completed individually or in groups and are to be handed in for the next session. All exercises are assessed by TAMU and contribute to the final assessment. The courses are taught by American professors or guest speakers.
The second sequence begins in October. It is devoted exclusively to the project. The groups are made up of American students and students from other partner universities (such as Swansea University in the United Kingdom, the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and Arts et Métiers).
Technological innovation projects are proposed with the aim of solving a problem put forward by an industrial partner or research laboratory. As with a PJT, students organize their group work with milestones and deliverables leading up to the final defense.
For Arts et Métiers students, this part of the project is extended by one month until their PJT is assessed in early January. The assessment provided by TAMU is taken into account in the grading. A certificate of participation is also provided by TAMU.
This module therefore reinforces certain learning outcomes already present in the curriculum through the PJT, which also aims to develop project management skills in an innovative technological setting with a group of students.
What are the main strengths of this module?
Mastering the international and multicultural component is very important in this module and for the success of the group project.
There is also the promotion of projects based on industrial demands or collaborative research projects between the two institutions.
Arts et Métiers the "Transitioning to Virtual Exchange Covid-19 Relief Fund," an initiative of the FACE Foundation launched in collaboration with the French Embassy and the U.S. Embassy in France.
