Academics

Students work with international peers in Global Cyber Learning Factory course

Computer science and engineering students, faculty and Centre County employees use Skype to chat with international partners on project. Credit: Penn StateCreative Commons

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. – Often when a professor assigns team projects at the start of the semester, after divvying up the work, most students forget about it until a few days before it’s due. But procrastination is nearly impossible when the teammates are global. 

From the start of the computer science and engineering 483W Global Cyber Learning Factory class students at University Park, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina had to plan out their projects with their international peers, taking into consideration the varying time zones, semester lengths and means of communications. They also had to give weekly reports to each other and their professors.

“I was excited by the fact that I would be working with students from around the world. Of course, I knew it was going to be challenging from the start, but that didn’t deter me,” said fourth-year student Stephen Cartwright from Hazleton, Pennsylvania. “Now that we’re nearing the end I’m feeling good about how it turned out. Everyone involved is happy with the results, as are we.”

The Global Cyber Learning team, led by Steve Shaffer, a certified software quality engineer and assistant professor of computer science and engineering, was tasked with building a program that people in Centre County could use as a resource to find services for those with intellectual disabilities. According to Shaffer, who serves on the Centre County Advisory Board for Mental Health, there is a thick book called the Gold Book that already lists these services. Over the past semester, the team of students has been working together to build a search engine that caregivers -- and those with the disabilities themselves -- can use in place of the bulky book. 

“It’s not just a list, it’s a context driven search engine,” explained Shaffer. “It’s like Amazon, you can sub-select what you’re looking for from education to job placement to a whole slew of things the county has to offer. The list is dynamic so the county can add new features for additional services offered in the future.”

While the project pertains to Centre County employees and residents, Raj Acharya, professor and interim director of the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and coordinator of the Global Cyber Learning Factory, had the idea to create a project that included students around the world, to expose them to something different, but pertinent to their industry. Together, students from all three universities built one search engine for Centre County.

“You have to cross cultural boundaries and languages -- it’s a true learning experience,” said Acharya. “When an engineer goes to work in industry, she or he will have to work on projects that are global in nature. We are training our students for this common industry practice.”

Girish Gaitonde, president and chief executive officer of Xoriant Corporation, a California-based global IT services company that he founded in 1990, couldn’t agree more. And that’s why he wanted to help fund the project.

“I built my career as well as my business in various aspects of the technology industry from engineering to marketing, sales and management. The company that I founded 25 years back helps our clients build, enhance, implement and support technology products and applications using our engineers located in our global development centers. As our clients are becoming more global, we have to help them globally,” Gaitonde, a 1983 Penn State graduate with a master of science in electrical engineering, said. “The Global Cyber Learning Factory concept appealed to me instantly. I thought it would be a good platform to connect information technology projects with students in multiple global locations, which would prepare them for future globally distributed and collaborative work environments. I thought that a gift to the program would be the most appropriate way to give back.”

Gaitonde’s generosity benefited students at Penn State, Sarajevo School of Science and Technology and the National Institute of Technology Karnataka, Surathkal, who were able to work together, despite the language and time barriers, by using applications like GroupMe, WhatsApp and Skype.

“Teamwork is important along with the student's ability to work independently if needed. However, it is not always possible for the students to work on a culturally diverse team with students who have different background and knowledge levels,” said Ram Shastry a faculty member from NITK, who coordinated the work done by students in India. “The Cyber Learning project presented us with an opportunity to allow the students to practically work in a cross-cultural platform, working collaboratively online. With the current trends in globalization and where the industry is leading, I think these kinds of collaborative efforts play an important role at the college level.

Shastry said his students learned the importance of working in a global, diverse team and how the challenges can be overcome with proper communication and management skills.

“Some of the things were learned during the project execution and we tried to adapt to the changing situation as much as possible to complete the project on time,” he said. “Overall, it was a good experience for the students.”

And Centre County employees were happy with the results as well.

“This tool will be very helpful to the support coordinators or caseworkers in the Intellectual Disabilities Unit. It will be an excellent resource for them to pass on to the individuals and families of their respective caseloads in order to provide information on local options for service providers,” said Paul Zimmerman, the Intellectual Disabilities program specialist. “I plan to mention the link to the database during intake appointments so individuals and families can find these local resources.”

The user-friendly search engine, which will launch this summer, is accessible through a regular browser and can be used on a smartphone. 

Currently the Global Cyber Learning Factory leaders are looking for a new project for students to begin in the fall semester.

Last Updated May 5, 2015