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LeadershipEngineeringLeadershipDevelopmentMinorwww.eldm.psu.eduThe Engineering Leadership Development Minor(ELDM) helps develop the leadership and businessskills necessary for success in today’s globaleconomy. ELDM students hone non-technical skillsas they lead teams, build networks, and help othersthrough hands-on, socially relevant leadershipprojects. The minor creates a transformationalenvironment in which students acquire theknowledge and skills essential for self-realization,understanding others, and being aware of their placein the world.As the world moves to a global economy,tomorrow’s engineers will need to be as comfortableworking with peers in Cairo and China as they arewith those in Cincinnati and California. The ELDMprogram has a strong basis in socially relevantentrepreneurship and international studies,which introduce students to the ins and outs ofinternational business. Through these real-worldprojects, students gain real-life leadership andproject management experience while making apositive impact on the world. ELDM projects spanthe globe from local improvement projects in StateCollege to building a school in Cambodia.Mondialogo: Anintercultural dialogueand exchangePenn State and Moroccan students collaborateon international engineering projectEighteen Penn State students and thirteen Moroccanstudents from École Mohammadia d’Ingénieurs cametogether in spring 2009 to form “Team Amerocco,”an international group of students with a passion for culturalexchanges and a drive to improve the world though engineering.Eleven of the Penn State students were from the EngineeringLeadership Development Minor (ELDM) capstone class,ENGR 497 Leadership, Innovation, and 21st Century ResourceChallenges, taught by Assistant Professor Richard Schuhmann,director of the ELDM, and seven students from Engineers for aSustainable World assisted the ELDM students with backgroundliterature research. The ELDM students collaborated with theMoroccans as part of the Mondialogo program, an initiativesponsored by Daimler and the United Nations Educational,Scientific, and Cultural Organization to promote interculturaldialogue and exchange.In the Mondialogo program, studentsfrom universities around the world collaborate andcommunicate with other universities on a team projectthrough the Mondialogo online community (www.mondialogo.com). These international teams competefor the Mondialogo Engineering Award, which is given tothose participants who best achieve the organization’s goal ofpromoting intercultural dialogue and cooperation betweeneducational engineering institutions in developing anddeveloped countries.Team Amerocco explored stove designs for their Mondialogoproject. According to the team’s project abstract, the WorldHealth Organization estimates that more than three billionpeople around the world use solid fuels for their energyneeds, which oftentimes produces indoor air pollution. Thispollution, which ranges from carbon monoxide to particulatematter, is the cause of nearly three percent of global diseases.Recognizing the need for clean and safe fuel burning in ruralareas of Morocco, the team set out to create an efficient,solid-fuel-burning stove design, while also taking culturalimplications into account.For the first part of the semester, the American and Moroccanstudents shared ideas over the online Mondialogo platform,which is equipped with message boards and chat features. Thetwo groups also communicated through Skype, an Internetbasedvideoconferencing, phone, and chat service, and throughthe College’s Polycom system.Above top, clockwise: Team Amerocco in Chellah, photo by Mike Ducker; hostfamily in Rabat, photo by Gopal Nadadur; stove design presentations on the finalday of the program in Rabat, Morocco, photo by Albert Besse.Opposite: A religious procession through Saleh, a town across the Boureg RegRiver from Rabat, Morocco, photo by Albert Besse.Over their spring break, the eleven Penn State ELDM studentstraveled to the capital city of Rabat to meet their Moroccancounterparts. Team Amerocco spent one week togethertraveling to remote areas of the Moroccan countryside to assessthe viability of their ideas—in both a functional and culturalcontext—and to refine their stove designs.These “field challenges,” designed to help the students get abroader picture of the disadvantages of the existing stoves,proved to be much more than an engineering exercise. Theseday-long excursions gave the Americans and Moroccans achance to bond and learn about each other’s cultures.“Morocco is incredibly different from the United States, butwe made some very close friends and learned so much abouteach other and each other’s cultures,” said Matt Yeamans, aMay 2009 mechanical engineering graduate with minors inELDM and engineering mechanics. “We asked some reallypersonal questions about their way of life and had a great opendialogue about all aspects of their way of life and ours.”44 | SEDTAPP NEwS | SPriNg 2010SPriNg 2010 | SEDTAPP NEwS | 45