Students finish 2008 PACE project car

November 2008

PACE car

Car

Typically, as students look back at year in review, they have little tangible evidence to show for their hard work. A few papers or perhaps a small group project are often the only evidence they have of months of dedicated effort. That’s not the case for the students involved in the Partners for the Advancement of Collaborative Engineering Education (PACE) program, however. After twelve months of hard work, the PACE team has a running Formula One race car which they can proudly present as evidence of their dedication.

With Brigham Young University spearheading the collaborative effort of 20 universities in nine countries, BYU students involved with PACE were called upon to use not only their engineering knowledge, but also their foreign language skills—communicating, collaborating and problem solving in seven languages throughout the course of the project.

The fact that nearly three-fourths of BYU students speak a second language was key to General Motors’ decision to choose BYU as the lead institution on this project, said Elaine Chapman-Moore, manager of Global PACE Partnerships for GM. "The engineering curriculum at BYU embodies many of the best practices endorsed by PACE. . . [The] students speak multiple languages based upon the emphasis placed on this by the BYU and the LDS culture, and the accommodation of different cultures and ways of doing things creates a warm and inviting environment for global teams to collaborate."

In November, 2008, the completed vehicle began a long journey that will make the car almost as internationally diverse as its creators. Traveling first to Korea for a thorough teardown, inspection, and rebuild by technicians at GM Daewoo, the car is then on to the PACE global forum in June and finally will travel to Macau for time trials in October and November, 2009.

the 2008 PACE team

Students finish 2008 PACE project car

College News October 2009

College News
October 2009