Perspectivism: Engaging in engineering discussions with engineering students from a different culture would help me to seek out and consider ethical perspectives and concepts other than my own.

Realistic Vision: This experience will teach me to be imaginative in developing engineering solutions, be sensitive, and understand the constraints of working with a team in a different time zone.

Working with Diverse Teams: I will be working on a project with a team from the United States and Portugal.

Global Citizenship: As an international student from Nigeria studying in the United States, and working with a team of people from Portugal, this course will improve my awareness as a “citizen of the world”.

Cultural Awareness: I am aware of how my cultural background may or may not relate to others and how I contribute to the success of the project.

Openness to Difference: This course exposes me to individuals and groups from different cultures and background.

Global Engineering has a strong connection to my grand challenge. Global engineering will help to understand the reason different countries utilize different solutions to the same problem. For my grand challenge, these differences in the solutions to a common problem are intriguing. For instance, if we consider the landscape of a community in countries like Spain and Portugal, they are very distinguishable from the landscape in Nigeria, Vietnam, and even China. So, a solution to improve the stormwater drainage in Portugal will vary from that used in Nigeria or China

My first assignment in this course was to create a Quad chart about myself that showcased my academic interests, professional experience, fun facts about me, and education. I was amazed at the information my colleagues in the US and in Porto shared about themselves. It made me realize just how different and diverse my colleagues were.

Global Engineering taught me the importance of thinking beyond my bubble and immediate cultural exposure. Every team project had members from both the US and Porto, and my team dealt with prevailing issues in countries in West Africa, South America, Asia, and some part of Europe.