Undergraduate Engineers Get Credit For Saving Venice

Today’s students grew up in an increasingly shrinking world, with about half of them having had an international travel experience with their family and nearly all of them having taken a foreign language in their earlier education (1). Somewhere along the way, though, the international experience doesn’t seem to fit within the engineering curriculum; there are too many course requirements to complete before graduation; and students drop off from their grander intentions, many even letting go of their hopes of developing a better understanding of a foreign language while at college. The barriers to international engineering study are multidimensional and include student barriers (perceived detraction from progress in the major, financial, language, reluctance to travel), faculty barriers (time away from research, family, reward system), and institutional barriers (curriculum constraints, awarding of credit, academic calendar, academic content).