Global Clinic Information for Prospective Sponsors

The Global Clinic Program at Harvey Mudd College prepares students for the future challenges of practicing engineering, science and mathematics in a global context.  The Program will support the activities associated with undertaking several year-long, industry sponsored global engineering and science projects in which teams of Harvey Mudd students will collaborate with teams of students from partner schools internationally with particular emphasis on partnerships in Singapore, China, India, and South Africa.

Harvey Mudd College has been at the forefront of undergraduate engineering, mathematics and science education for forty years. The flagship of our engineering program is Clinic, which includes three courses in the junior and senior years. This program has been expanded to include sponsored programs in Physics, Computer Science and Mathematics and team members from Chemistry and Biology. A team of four or five students (typically three to four seniors and a junior) work with a faculty advisor on a client sponsored project for one academic year. The student team engages in the full range of professional activities associated with carrying out a project for a client from design conception to completion.  This direct experiential learning is the hallmark of clinical practice for all professions. As professionals, students learn teamwork, leadership, planning, communication, ethical responsibility not in a classroom but from the example and conduct of peers and mentors as participants of an authentic industrial project experience. The philosophy of Clinic is at the heart of the new Global Clinic Program which includes students from all departments at Harvey Mudd College.

The accelerating pace of globalization in communications and business is the theme of much recent debate in national forums.  The technical ability to communicate instantaneously and share information across great distances has blurred distinctions between local and global, leading to new forms and methods of work:

      “Many advanced engineering designs are accomplished using virtual global
        teams—highly integrated engineering teams comprised of researchers located
        around the world.  These teams often function across multiple time zones,
        multiple cultures, and sometimes multiple languages.” 

At HMC, teachers and learners enjoy a privileged reputation in project-based learning by working cooperatively in teams addressing open-ended problems sponsored by industrial partners. The Clinic Program has been an outstanding success for forty years. It is now time to realize the next educational innovation at the college by offering students an integrated, multidisciplinary, multicultural program emphasizing professional practice and experience by working on international project teams.

In light of this commitment to the next advance in engineering, mathematics and science education, we have adopted the following goals for the Global Clinic Program:

•    Foster a deeper understanding in our graduates of the culture, language and business practices of another country to communicate shared interests and objectives in the course of collaborative team projects.
•    Offer international sponsor companies a partnership role in the education of the next generation engineering and science graduate.
•    Benefit society by promoting international cooperation and partnership to address the challenges of the global community including problems with global impact

The Program provides a focus and structure for:

•    Engaging student and faculty participation in global science and engineering projects
•    Oversight of the operational requirements or deliverables for the projects
•    Hosting visiting project teams of students, faculty advisors and company liaisons
•    Providing a forum for international collaborations and education

The principle activity of the Program will be the management of ongoing global engineering and science projects through close partnership with engineering and science schools in other countries. In our first year of operation (2006-07), two projects with teams of students from HMC and the University of Puerto Rico Mayaguez were completed. The projects were sponsored by Hewlett-Packard and Amgen Inc. During the second year (2007-08), HMC partnered with the National University of Singapore with a project sponsored by Applied Biosystems. Two additional projects are planned for Singapore in 2008-09 with plans for projects in China and India in the near future.

These international projects are administrated jointly by HMC and each partner school using similar guidelines for the client sponsored projects of current Clinic courses. At steady state we might expect to be running up to ten global engineering and science projects with five to ten partner schools. 

Harvey Mudd College is proud of its distinctive undergraduate engineering, mathematics and science curriculum and now looks forward to the next advance in preparing students for practice in the future global economy by providing them with an innovative international project-based educational program that enhances the existing curriculum. As we move towards this next innovation in engineering, mathematics and science education, we look forward to the continued advice, encouragement and support of our corporate partners who have embraced our philosophy of direct experiential learning of professional practice for the last fifty years.

Overview of Global Project Operation

1. Project Planning and Development

In the year preceding the start of the global clinic project, identify the sponsor company, define the project details, and identify liaisons to work with the student/faculty teams from partner institutions.  Identify and educate the partner educational institution on goals and expectations for global clinic. The typical team includes students from Harvey Mudd (3) and the partner institution (3) with one faculty advisor from each institution.

2. Timing

The project runs for one full year (June - May), including both a summer and academic year component. Projects and partners are identified and commitments declared by the December before the global clinic starts.

Summer: HMC students travel at the beginning of June to the partner institution for an intensive four-week program. The focus is on initial project planning, meeting the liaison abroad and intensive team building/acculturation activities. At the beginning of July, the partner university students come to HMC for courses in project management, design, and communications as well as for discussions with the local liaison and completion of a project-planning document for presentation at a design review at the company sponsor site at the end of July.

Academic Year: September-May. The student teams return to their respective institutions and stay in weekly contact with each other via email, teleconference or videoconference and with the company liaisons via a weekly multi-conference call. The students count their participation in the global clinic as senior project (clinic) course credit for the academic year. Each institution determines the credit and grading structure for their students. The milestones for the academic year are along similar lines to the regular Clinic Program and will culminate in a final presentation at the sponsoring company at the end of the academic year.

3. Supervision

A faculty member from each institution is appointed team adviser, monitoring progress and assisting with facilitating team communications. The two faculty members work cooperatively to ensure that the academic goals for the students are met including establishment of a summer curriculum. Each institution takes responsibility for hosting the student teams during the summer stays.

4. Coordination of Summer Program

At each site, HMC and the partner school, the institution hires a summer program coordinator to plan and implement the team/acculturation activities. This person works with the Global Clinic Director and faculty advisors to administer travel arrangements, orientation, visas, housing, meals, transportation, and organization of instruction in culture and history and securing institutional permissions.

5. Sponsor 

What is the sponsor’s involvement?
•    Submission of Project Statement in the preceding spring.
•    Appointment of liaison(s) to guide team to desired results through weekly contact.
•    Payment of Clinic fee in installments over the year.

What does the sponsor gain?
•    Useful project results such as a hardware or software prototype, a device or program to be put into production, a mathematical analysis and research investigation, or a design proposal.
•    Retention of all ownership rights of resulting outcomes—patents are common.
•    Fresh insight by a highly talented team of international students.
•    High visibility on campus throughout the academic year, beneficial to recruiting efforts.
The high rate of sponsor return testifies to sponsor satisfaction and perceived value.


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  ‘The Engineer of 2020’, National Academies Press, p33, 2004