Work in progress - A joint design project between students at CU Boulder and IIT Delhi

In today’s world students must learn to work in international design teams. Time, distance, cultural, and background differences need to be accommodated in order to successfully execute a design project with an international team. As a way of giving our students some experience in overcoming these barriers, a joint team of students at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi has entered the 2007 IEEE International Future Energy Challenge student competition. The competition requires the design, fabrication, and hardware demonstration of an integrated starter motor/alternator for use in an automobile. The students have had to learn how to establish and maintain communications with an eleven and a half hour time difference, differences in equipment, examination schedules, and varying levels of support, while attempting to design an innovative technical solution for the project. Currently, the joint technical design effort is well underway, with the final competition judging set for August 2007. This paper describes the problems and successes of this joint design project.