Self-Directed Summer Design Experience Across Disciplines and the Globe

Abstract

During the summer of 2014, the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology initiated a multidisciplinary international design experience for the benefit of the student populations of both institutions. The goal of this program was to create an international multidisciplinary team-based research and design project that included exposure to the academic and industrial environments in both Hong Kong as well as the United States (specifically the Boston area). The Harvard-HKUST International Summer Design Experience occurred completely outside of any classroom setting during nine weeks and was co-located in Boston and Hong Kong for four weeks each. The reason to hold this program in both Hong Kong and Cambridge, MA was to give the students a chance to work within and experience both campuses, culturally and geographically. The pedagogical approach was unique, as there was no embedded curriculum and students were able to freely pursue a project in a given topic area that they were interested in. The major topic for this summer was Visible Light Communication systems. In this paper we present the general pedagogical approach to this experience and provide some insights and examples of the effect the program had on students.