Carnegie Mellon Launches New International Course To Prepare Civil Engineers For Jobs In Global Economy

December 14, 2006
Contact: Chriss Swaney
(412) 268-5776

PITTSBURGH— Carnegie Mellon University’s Burcu Akinci and Lucio Soibelman will launch a new capstone project course in January to help civil engineers learn to work in a global environment. The International Collaborative Construction Management course (ICCM) will enable student teams from the United States, Brazil, Turkey and Israel to work collaboratively on a variety of international construction projects executed in these countries.

“The whole idea is to equip our students with the experience and toolkits so essential for competitive success in today’s global marketplace,’’ said Soibelman, an associate professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a former Brazilian contractor. Soibelman said the course will help students learn about the application of advanced tools for planning an international construction project, motivating co-workers and the importance of overcoming language and cultural barriers in the international marketplace.

“Students also will learn the importance of information, communication and collaboration technologies as they form their virtual companies and corresponding organization structures and alliances with international teams to develop construction estimates and schedules in a collaborative way,’’ said Akinci, an associate professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Antonio Fernandez, a senior manager for international projects at Monroeville-based Paul C. Rizzo Associates Inc. and a Carnegie Mellon civil engineering alum, praised the new course offerings. “It’s imperative that students learn to work and manage in a global environment because that is the reality for today and tomorrow,’’ said Fernandez, who is fluent in two languages. “The world is becoming a much smaller place as communication and technology shrink time and distance.’’

A combination of both video conferencing, a litany of emails and web-based, asynchronous collaboration tools will keep student teams connected as they navigate a series of construction project management related challenges. The 14 students, based in the United States, will develop bids and building specs for three separate international projects.

The projects include a low-income housing development in Brazil, a light-rail train system underway in Turkey and a vehicle tunnel in Israel. Their foreign counterparts also will monitor job bids and participate in interactive project management at the various construction sites in each respective country. The students will be supported by faculty and industry mentors in all four countries.

“Our Carnegie Mellon students will essentially play the part of an American international company bidding on a variety of jobs which demand the use of international management skills, labor negotiation techniques and a whole range of engineering and design principles,’’ Soibelman said.

In fact, the new undergraduate course offering has proven to be so popular that Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering also plans to offer a master’s level program in 2007 on Global Sustainable Construction. The graduate program seeks to educate future construction industry decision makers about the long-term sustainability of structures during, before and after the construction phase in a global economy.

About Carnegie Mellon: Carnegie Mellon is a private research university with a distinctive mix of programs in engineering, computer science, robotics, business, public policy, fine arts and the humanities. More than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students receive an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration, and innovation. A small student-to-faculty ratio provides an opportunity for close interaction between students and professors. While technology is pervasive on its 144-acre campus, Carnegie Mellon is also distinctive among leading research universities for the world-renowned programs in its College of Fine Arts. For more, see www.cmu.edu.