An International Collaboration In Engineering Education

Patrick Favier
I.U.T Bethune, Universite d’Artois
1230, rue de l’Universite
62408 Bethune
FRANCE
patrick.favier@univ-artois.fr

Sohail Anwar
The Pennsylvania State University
3000, Ivyside Park
Altoona, PA 16601-3760
U.S.A
sxa15@psu.edu

Abstract – This paper describes an International Collaboration in Engineering Education (ICEE). This project is being carried
out during this academic Year 2007-2008 and it concerns six partners from several educational institutions in Western and
Eastern Europe and the United States of America. Teams composed of 2-3 students each are set up in various Institutes in
different countries. They have to work on an engineering system to be designed and implemented, namely: “A Renewable
Energy System for an Agricultural Farm”.
This technical application is divided into subsystems, i.e each partner chooses a subsystem to be designed and implemented by
its student team.
A Web site has been developed to describe the collaboration, to give the technical specifications and to publish the students’
project reports. It enables to create a link between the students. www.univ-artois.fr/icee/
The goal of this collaboration is to set up an international partnership with teachers and students’ teams working together
beyond international borders. The students will gain valuable experience in team work, project management and
communication through electronic media. The students work on a modern and attractive application that is to say renewable
energies.
This 2007-2008 collaborative application turned out to be successful and we decided to carry on during the next 2008-2009
academic Year.

I. INTRODUCTION The partners in this international engineering design

The objectives of this international academic
collaboration are as follows:
1. To help the participating students understand the
impact of engineering solutions in a global context.
2. To help the participating students face to the modern
reality that is to say one subsystem of an engineering
application is developed in one country and the other one
is developed in another country.
3. To help students gain valuable experience in team
work and project management.
This manuscript describes the above mentioned on-going
international academic collaboration and provides details
regarding the implementation of this collaborative
project.
collaborative project are:
• IUT Bethune, Universite d’Artois, France
• The Pennsylvania State University, Altoona College,
USA
• Kando Kalman Faculty, Budapest, Hungary
• Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, Ireland
• Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
• Cluj Napoca University, Cluj, Romania
The International Collaboration Goals
• Undergraduate engineering students enrolled in
different educational institutions in France, USA,
Ireland, Poland, Romania, and Hungary will design and
implement a common engineering design project.
• Students will gain valuable experience in team work
and project management.
• Students will gain valuable experience in
communication through electronic media.
• Participating engineering students will gain experience
regarding the modern reality that many times one
subsystem of an engineering application is developed in
one country and the other one is developed in another
country.
• The proposed collaborative team-based design project
will link multiple engineering students’ teams over
international borders.
II THE TECHNICAL APPLICATION
This technical system which concerns Electrical
Engineering is very complete, it is composed of different
sources and consumers, and it is opened to other
proposals from the partners or innovations from the
students.
Each partner institution is required to work on a
component of this international engineering design
project.
At the completion of this project, all the components will
be put together to produce a functional engineering
application.

The engineering system to be designed and implemented

is entitled “ A RENEWABLE ENERGY SYSTEM FOR
AN AGRICULTURAL FARM”. It concerns a modern
and very attractive subject for the students and
corresponds to the new problem of sustainable
development.
This agricultural farm uses different renewable energy
sources: photovoltaic panels, a wind turbine, and a small
hydro-electrical station. Accumulators can store energy
in batteries or in other modern components.
This farm is connected to the national power grid, so we
have the possibility of sending back the energy to the
national supplier.
III THE PARTNERS INVOLVED IN THIS
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
In May 2007, we had a meeting in Bethune with a few
partners staying in France as guest professors. We
decided to create an international collaboration to
organize common students’ projects in different
countries. In France, the feature of IUT curriculum is the
teaching through projects, [1], [2], [3].
Due to the enthusiasm of the colleagues, this partnership
has been set up very quickly. Six institutes supported this
proposal:

Different circuits consume the electrical energy. In

particular, there is one concerning a student's project. It Institution
is a water tank filled by an electrical sump pump. The
water level is controlled by this system. The next figure IUT Bethune, Universite
shows a synopsis of this system. d’Artois
Bethune, France
http://www.iutbethune.org/
Project Contact Person
Dr. Patrick Favier
Associate Professor of
Electrical Engineering

The Pennsylvania State Dr. Sohail Anwar

University, Associate Professor of
Altoona College, U.S.A Electrical Engineering
http://www.aa.psu.edu

Dublin Institute of Prof. Paul Tobin; Prof. John

Technology, Dublin, Ireland MacGrory
http://www.electronics.dit.ie/ Faculty of Engineering

Warsaw University of Dr. Desire Dauphin

Technology, Warsaw, Rasolomampionona
Poland Professor of Electrical
http://www.pw.edu.pl/english/ Engineering
felekr.html

Cluj Napoca University Prof.Virgil Maier

Cluj, Romania Professor of Electrical
http://www.utcluj.ro/ Engineering

Kando Kalman Faculty Dr. Lorant Nagy

Budapest, Hungary Associate Professor of
http://www.aut.bmf.hu Electrical Engineering

Fig. 1. synopsis of the 07-08 system

 IV TEAM FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT OF
PROJECTS
Teams consisting of 2-3 students each have been
constituted at IUT Bethune, Penn State University,
Dublin Institute of Technology, Warsaw University of
Technology, Cluj-Napoca University, and Budapest
Faculty [4].
Preliminary technical specifications regarding the
proposed engineering system are provided to the student
teams. Each of the student team was assigned a faculty
project manager. The faculty mentor guides their
respective students’ teams throughout the duration of this
project.
Each mentor chooses a subsystem in this technical
application depending on his interest or his competences
in this field or the equipments that he has got. And he
explains to his students the study and work to be done.
Each student team proposes a design solution for the
subsystem to be designed and implemented by that team.
This design solution is reviewed by the faculty mentor
assigned to the student team.
The subsystem design solution proposed by each team is
posted on a website [5] developed by the Electrical
Engineering Department of the IUT Bethune, France.
The website is permanently maintained to display all the
collaborative undergraduate engineering design projects
(current and future) to be conducted through this
proposed collaboration among France, the United States,
Ireland, Poland, Romania and Hungary.
V THE TASK OF EACH PARTNER
During the 2007 fall trimester, each partner chooses a
part in this technical system:

Bethune, Fr:
Assembling a new system with solar panels and special
inverters to send the electrical energy to the power grid.

Altoona, USA
Using a Motorola 68HC11 microcontroller, write a
program to control a sump pump which is connected to
the power grid of the Renewable Energy System. A
sump collects water runoff. The sump removes the water
whenever it fills up. When the level rises to a higher
limit, the pump turns on. It stays on until the level drops
to a low limit. Then the pump shuts off. It does not turn
on again until the well fills up to the high limit.

Budapest, Hu
Design and realization of the charge regulator for the
batteries.

Warsaw, Po
Study of a hybrid system: solar and fuel cells.

Dublin, Ir
Mobile weather station using solar panels, PIC
controller, sensors, Tx/Rx module to send information
back to the base station.

Cluj Napoca, Ro
Solar Energy and installation of wind turbines on the
Touristic Base Marisel.
All these projects have been conducted during the 2007-
2008 academic year. Those involved in this program
were second or third year bachelor students.
Moreover each students’ team had to write a report to
present its work. In June 2008, all projects were
completed and we got the students’ reports.
The work done by the student teams was assessed by
their respective faculty mentors. The project report and
the subsystem developed by each student team have been
assessed. All the project reports have been made
available through a special website.
VI THE EXAMPLE OF BETHUNE PROJECT
At Bethune I.U.T, we decide to deal with the
photovoltaic source, the storage in batteries and the
sending of energy to the grid. Patrick Favier as tutor,
suggested to four students to design and realise the
installation. It concerned students in second year of the
IUT curriculum, i.e. second year of bachelor degree in
Electrical Engineering specialised in Electro Energetics.
The national curriculum of these students implies a
project called Study and Realization carried on 96 hours
in a lab under the supervision of a coach Teacher. In
Bethune IUT, we completed this through four hours
sessions from December to March. The students work in
pairs on one technical project.
Generally, we offer the students to do useful project for
the laboratory. The realizations of satisfactory quality,
are integrated in the lab to be use in training lab works
with other students during the following Years.
Our ICEE project has been divided into three parts:

First part: assembling the solar panels
We use Amorphous silicon solar panels; 36 panels from
the Free Energy company, ref FEE 14-12, each gives
12V 12W. They are mounted on an aluminium frame and
fastened on a wall facing south. These modules are tilted
with a 26° slope with the vertical. This gives the
maximum energy capture in February corresponding to
the period we teach the lab works in renewable energies.

Fig. 2. The solar panels

Second part: the storage in batteries
The energy collected by a 24 panels group, is storeed in
lead accumulators, the capacity is composed of two
batteries 12V, 150Ah parallel connexions. The charge is
controlled by a special MPT regulator which is
programmable and indicates a lot of electrical parameters
on the panels and battery level.
The components are assembled on a white board with
electrical protections and voltage and current indicators.
This installation provides two lines to use the energy: a
12V DC output and an AC 230V output supplied with an
autonomous inverter whose DC input is connected to the
batteries. The maximum power of this AC line is 500W.
The safety is operated through a 30 mA residual current
breaker.
Fig.3. the autonomous system

Third part: the energy sent to the grid
The main component of this realization is a special
inverter. The Gridfit 250 is a grid-connected device
which combines safety with high quality and reliability.
It is supplied by 12 solar panels; the maximum output
capacity is 200W under a power factor equal to unity.
Fig.4. the grid connected inverter’s installation
To get more details, log on to the web site [5].
VII THE WEB SITE
To inform the international community of our
collaboration and to publish the results of the students’
works, we decided to create a web site. This site was
developed by Patrick Favier at Bethune I.U.T, Fr, you
can have access to it through: www.univ-artois.fr/icee
These main pages are:

The project specifications

The engineering system in renewable energies

The partners involved in this collaboration

Each partner’s task

The current state of advancement

The selection table to the students’ reports

The photos album

The summary.
This web site is regularly maintained and updated. Its
main use is to provide the reports of the students who
have worked on a project. This publishing tool is very
interesting for the students, it enables to increase the
value of their works and they are proud of what they did
at their University.
From this web site, the students and the teachers could
see what the others had done. It has been a link between
them [5]. Now we plan to use this site as a
communication tool. For example, they could exchange
new ideas or documents concerning their technical
projects.
VIII SUMMARY AND FUTURE PROSPECTS
International engineering design collaboration between
several educational institutions was described in this
manuscript. The unique aspect of the above mentioned
international academic collaboration is that although the
students’ teams in the partner institutions work on a
common engineering design project, each participating
institution is responsible for designing and implementing
a specific subsystem of the complete engineering system.
Eventually, all the subsystems will be integrated into a
single functional engineering system.
Now our collaboration could be increased up to ten
partners: Bethune (Fr), Altoona (USA), Budapest (Hu),
Dublin (Ir), Cluj (Ro), Warsaw (Po), Marrakech (Mo),
Baia Mare (Ro), Resita (Ro) and Kuopio (Fi).
IX REFERENCES
[1] Kando Conference 2006
P.Favier D.Jouglet
Kando Kalman Institute, 12-13 January 2006
New technologies projects at I.U.T Bethune
III./321 + CD ROM
[2] Technology Interface Journal 7(1)
S.Anwar, P.Favier K.Mikszath
Octobre 2006
Design and implementation of a PIC microcontroller
based firing controller for a triphase thyristor rectifier
http://technologyinterface.nmsu.edu/Fall06/

The international engineering design project will help the [3] Technology Interface Journal 8(1)
participating students understand the impact of S.Anwar, P.Favier, P.Vida
engineering solutions in a global context. More November 2007
importantly, it will expose students to the modern reality Design and implementation of a microcontroller-based
that many times one subsystem of an engineering ignition system
application is developed in one country and the other one http://technologyinterface.nmsu.edu/Fall07/
is developed in a different country.

In May 2008, a faculty seminar was conducted in [4] ASEE 2008 Annual Conference Proceedings
Bethune to sum up the conclusions of this project. We CD ROM publication, session 2160
discussed about the results of the different students’ S.Anwar, P.Favier, D.Jouglet
works and we made an analysis of the project A project-based international collaboration in
management. We decided to continue this collaboration engineering education.
and to extend the partnership.

The technical topic is the renewable energies application. [5] our ICEE web site: www.univ-artois.fr/icee
New sources and consumers will be taken into
consideration.

As a guest professor from Marrakech (Morocco) was

attending this meeting, he suggested to integrate this
collaboration. Currently his students are already working
on a hybrid system: hydro generator and solar panels.

During the 2008/2009 academic year, we will try to give

the students’ teams the opportunity to communicate. The
web is the easiest way and a modern way for the
students. They will start with emailing; this avoids the
problem of time difference (UE-USA).

During an international meeting at our Bethune’s

University on 23-24 October 2008, we presented our
collaboration to other participants and we suggested
them to join us in order to extend our partnership. Then,
we discussed in a workshop on Electrical Engineering
and gave a few details. Then, partners declared to be
very interested and willing to participate. The University
of Baia Mare (Ro) wants to deal with the hydro station
project and the University of Kuopio (Fi) and the
University of Resita (Ro) promised to join us.