Purdue-Tsinghua Undergraduate Research Dual Exchange: A New Programmatic Implementation for Enhancing Global Learning
Year: 2015
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Aligned with the larger trends noted above, the Purdue-Tsinghua Undergraduate Dual-Exchange Research Program (referred to as "the two-way program" in the remainder of the paper) was developed to leverage existing resources, build on sound prior scholarship, and dovetail with a clear set of educational research objectives.The two-way program is a team-oriented research program offered by the Purdue's Office of Professional Practice.Tsinghua University is one of the top ranked universities in China and widely regarded as the best in the field of engineering.The two-way program started in 2010 with receipt of a seed grant from Purdue's International Programs.Students from the two partner institutions form cross-cultural teams that undertake interdisciplinary research projects for a period of ten weeks.This paper describes the two projects offered during the summer of 2014, which were focused on big data and analytics in biomedicine.The projects' interdisciplinary spirit is justified and strengthened by the participation of faculty advisors from Purdue's Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and Tsinghua's Department of Automation.The dual exchange program is structured such that intensive research is first conducted in a Tsinghua University lab for five weeks, from early June to mid July.Typically, during the first phase of the project when the students are in Tsinghua they familiarize themselves with the domain knowledge and the data mining techniques they will be using in their research.The first author also has weekly conference calls with the students, and the students are instructed to ask their native Chinese professor for technical support.Next, the paired students travel back to Purdue University and continue to conduct their research for five more weeks.In the second phase of the project they apply the selected data mining methods.They are expected to produce results that could later be turned into conference presentations and/or scholarly publications.The summer semester provides a convenient time for both sides because neither the U.S. students' nor Chinese students' academic calendar is impacted.And in contrast to one-way study aboard or research programs, the dual exchange format offers the continuity of global learning experience for the American students even after their return from China.The students are also offered the opportunity to continue working on the project during the subsequent academic year, with a focus on manuscript preparation.Research project topics are proposed by the first author and his domain collaborators at Purdue University.In the summer of 2014, four students participated in two data mining projects, which are the focus of the experiences discussed in this paper.The titles of the projects are "Plaque Vulnerability Characterization for Acute Coronary Syndrome using Photoacoustic Imaging Data" and "Feature Extraction in Analyzing Communication Sequence Data in Shared Medical Decision-Making Processes for Better Predicting Patient Satisfaction."After the project descriptions were developed and approved by the relevant Purdue personnel, they were sent to the first author's counterpart at Tsinghua for final approval.Once the descriptions were approved by both sides, the recruitment process was underway at both universities.From late March to May, the students were contacted by the international exchange and study abroad offices to deal with the international travel issues.The students also relied on their native counterparts to help one another prepare for basic living issues in each country.As part of the two-way program the first author has contributed and supervised a number of big data biomedical analytics projects jointly with his Chinese counterpart.With modern
DOI: 10.18260/p.24622
Institution: Purdue University West Lafayette
Language: English
Subfield: Architecture
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2595235677