East meets west: making the best of two worlds

Abstract

In the past two decades, large numbers of Chinese engineering students have come to the US to pursue graduate studies. These Chinese students brought their drastically different learning styles to America's engineering classrooms and laboratories. Today, Chinese engineers play an important role in American high tech industry. Their success demonstrates that it is possible for students of different cultural background and learning style to excel in America's engineering education system. The bigger question is: can we improve engineering education in both the US and China by learning from each other's success and failure? The author presents his personal observations of the differences between the traditional Chinese education system and the modern American way of teaching and learning and provides his opinions on how to improve engineering education in both countries.