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The purpose of the Rackham Grant for the Global Engagement of Doctoral Education is to encourage and assist graduate programs that seek to make global engagement a core part of doctoral education.

The Department of Mechanical Engineering aims to capitalize on our existing relations and establish long-term research and education collaborations with two institutions in Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Kumasi) and University of Ghana (Legon). One component of this multipronged effort is to provide financial and logistical support for up to 12 PhD students to conduct up to a two-month internship in Ghana during 2012-2023. We are currently accepting applications for 2023. The internships will provide ME doctoral students with the opportunity to identify new research projects and collaborators, gain intercultural competencies, and work with multidisciplinary professionals. 

The benefits that ME students are expected to derive from the program include:

• • Understanding local culture and ethics by actually experiencing it through on-site collaboration with local students and personnel.

  • Realizing that engineering research is not only interdisciplinary, but is increasingly becoming global in nature, and that working in a team can be a multi-dimensional global endeavor.

  • Identifying and establishing connections with local professionals (doctors, engineers, etc.), researchers, faculty, and companies that will benefit the student’s research efforts at UM.

  • Identifying technical needs that can lead to the initiation of new research projects.

  • Exposure to a unique environment that poses constraints on scientific/technical approaches students are typically accustomed to in the U.S.

  • Directly experiencing new contexts for scientific/technical research and development.

Financial support will be provided to offset travel costs (e.g., flight, room and board, visa, local transportation). Priority will be given to applicants whose faculty advisor has committed to traveling to Ghana prior to or in parallel with the student applicant.

Application Process

• • Applicants can submit a statement of interest on a rolling basis

  • Within one month of submission, applicants will be contacted by a panel of faculty to discuss their interest in the PhD Ghana Internship

Questions? Email MEGhanaPhDinternship@umich.edu