Course code: wb5419
Course name: International Networked Engineering and Design

ECTS creditpoints: 6

Tel.: 015-2785729

Course year: MSc 1st year
Semester: 1 or 4
Lecture hours per week:
Other hours: 160
Assessment: werkstuk
Ass. period: nvt
(see jaarindeling)

INTEND is an international consortium of universities and industry partners whose principal aim is to conduct research on how to improve the performance of geographically distributed teams of engineers. This web site provides a summary of the organization and activities of INTEND.

The goal of the INTEND project is to systematically study the factors that influence the performance of distributed engineering teams, including those that impact upon the outputs of the group and those that influence their cooperation and communication processes. We further seek to provide an international and cross-cultural experience for both engineering students and industry professionals in order to enrich their education and better prepare them for the types of problems they will encounter in the increasingly global economy.

INTEND provides a means by which international teams of engineers can be formed to work on real problems, for the purpose of enabling systematic research on how to improve the effectiveness and social cohesion of such distributed teams. We focus upon multinational, multicultural, and multifunctional teams and attempt to minimize problems associated with extreme geographic dispersion, large scale time zone differences, and complex, multidisciplinary engineering design problems. Our initial set of investigations is exploring how emerging but widely available group coordination technologies can be best used to support distributed teams of engineers. Additionally, we are exploring how training in the area of group problem solving techniques and cross cultural communication can aid group performance and social cohesion.