Keywords:
computer science, applied and computational mathematics, STEM education, cross-cultural collaboration, interdisciplinary teaching
Abstract
In this practice report, we present a practical experience of a virtual exchange carried out by a Belgian and a Brazilian professor from two research intensive universities in Northwestern Europe and in Latin America, respectively. Particularly, this paper is focused on how we designed a common syllabus in a specific topic of STEM, aiming to explore math and computer science skills of the students, and how we implemented this virtual exchange step by step, despite the students being from different courses and different levels of degree. In addition, we discuss the pros and cons of the process from the instructors’ perspective as well as under students’ views, and provide some suggestions to be applied and tested for future virtual exchanges in this field. Overall, this practice report reinforces our deep reflection about the results and desire to share our STEM syllabus to encourage other colleagues to apply it (or modify it) for different courses.
Author Biographies
Gilcilene Sanchez de Paulo, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho
Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Presidente Prudente/SP, Brazil. Her education includes a Postdoctoral in Applied Mathematics at Department of Mechanical Engineering - FEUP, University of Porto, Portugal, Portugal. Currently, she is a vice-coordinator of Regional 9 from Brazilian Society of Computational and Applied Mathematics - SBMAC. Her research interests are concentrated on Numerical Analysis; Numerical Methods for solving Partial and Ordinary Equations; Numerical Methods for solving Navier-Stokes Equations; Computational Rheology. She is also enthusiastic about pedagogical methodologies that can extract the best abilities from students.
Quentin Louveaux, Université de Liège
Quentin Louveaux obtained his PhD in 2004 at the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium in Applied Mathematics. After postdoctoral stays in Magdeburg (Germany) and EPFL, Lausanne (Switzerland), he obtained a professor position in 2007 at the University of Liège (Belgium) where he is currently associate professor, teaching numerical analysis and numerical optimization. His main research interests lie in mathematical optimization in general with a focus on the numerical methods to solve mixed-integer linear optimization problems as well as all engineering applications of mathematical optimization including energy, biomedical and machine learning questions.
Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho
Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão is a professor at the Department of Modern Languages and in the Postgraduate Program in Linguistics at São Paulo State University (UNESP). She is currently the Assistant Provost for International Affairs and has contributed to designing and implementing the Brazilian Virtual Exchange (BRaVE) Program in collaboration with the Brazilian Association for International Education (FAUBAI).
Gustavo Primo, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho
Gustavo Primo has been a Technical Assistant at the Brazilian Virtual Exchange Program at São Paulo State University (UNESP) since 2021. With a background in teaching English for Specific Purposes and Portuguese as a Foreign Language, he earned a Master's Degree in Literary Studies (UFSCar, 2019) and a Bachelor's Degree in Languages and Literature (UFSCar, 2016).
Copyright (c) 2024 Gilcilene Sanchez de Paulo, Quentin Louveaux, Ana Cristina Biondo Salomão, Gustavo Primo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
All our authors retain their copyright and all rights associated to their work, and what we ask in return is a mere non-exclusive right to publish their work in print and electronically. This means that authors are free to do whatever they want with their article, even republish it elsewhere, as long as the original creation is properly credited.
Each accepted article is published under a Creative Commons licence. Although we apply a CC BY licence by default to all individual articles, we believe it is fair-minded to let authors decide the level of restriction of their licence should they wish so; see our Licence policy for additional information.
