Forming the global engineer for the americas: Global educational experiences and opportunities involving Latin America and the Caribbean

The Engineering for the Americas Symposium's Final Report urges the academic sector to develop a change in paradigm to educate the Engineer of the 21st Century, and in particular to focus on this Hemisphere. This urgent call is coming from all sectors, and clearly requires defining and facilitating experiences that would result in the Global Engineer. The European Union has defined and facilitated multi-national educational experiences important to capacity development in their area, but this has not been done for the Western Hemisphere. This brings political, economic and cultural challenges that must be explored and resolved. This paper explores efforts by the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI), the Ibero American Science and Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC), the Asociación Ibero-Americana de Instituciones de Enseñanza de la Ingeniería (ASIBEI), and Engineering for the Americas (EftA) to promote the formation of world-class engineers for the Americas; as well as an assortment of resources and opportunities that facilitate the participation of faculty, staff, and students from Latin America and the Caribbean in a variety of engineering education experiences.