Bangkok Project Center - A Guide For Project Sponsors
Since 1990, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), a US-based technological university, has been sending mixed teams of engineering, science, and management students to Bangkok to complete 8-week interdisciplinary projects relating science or technology to social issues and human need. These projects have been sponsored by Thai NGOs, universities, and government agencies as well as by multinational firms and international organizations. The students are accompanied by WPI professors who serve as residential project advisors and work closely with the student teams. The students pay for their own travel and housing expenses and receive no compensation. Details of the program are provided below. For more information, please contact Prof. Steve Weininger, either by e-mail at stevejw@wpi.edu, or by telephone at +508 831-5396.
An Overview of WPI and its Student Project Programs
Founded in 1865, WPI is a private technology-oriented university, located about one hour west of Boston, Massachusetts, with over 2700 undergraduate students, 600 graduate students, and 220 fulltime faculty. WPI was recently named by the Association of American Colleges and Universities as one of 16 "Leadership Institutions" for excellence and innovation in undergraduate education. WPI students pursue degree programs (BS, MS, and PhD) in engineering, the sciences, or management.
As part of their BS degree requirements, all WPI undergraduates must complete three significant projects, including a third-year interdisciplinary project called the "Interactive Qualifying Project", or IQP. The IQP is not directly related to the students' major areas of study. Instead, by working on multidisciplinary teams to address problems related to technology, society, and human needs, students come to understand how their careers in technology will impact, and be affected by, societal structures and values. The students are asked to develop specific goals, conduct research, gather relevant information, and provide a useful result to the project sponsor. Students complete IQPs in teams of 3 or 4 under close direction of WPI advisors, both on and off-campus.
The IQP is an academic degree requirement equivalent in credit to three courses, and is often done off-campus in collaboration with public, private, or nonprofit agencies or organizations. The students cannot receive pay, but direct project expenses, as mentioned below, are requested of the sponsor. WPI has created "Project Centers" in locations around the world, including programs in Europe, Central America, North America, and the Asia-Pacific region. Typically, about 30 students and 2 staff advisors will spend two months at these centers while the students work fulltime on projects in small teams.
Student Projects at the Bangkok Project Center
WPI has been conducting student-implemented projects in Thailand since 1990. Most of these projects have been sponsored through universities and NGOs. Our principal academic partner has been Chulalongkorn University; we have also had projects with Kasetsart and Chiang Mai Universities and King Mongkut's University of Technology, Thonburi. Among the NGOs have been the Duang Prateep Foundation in Klong Toey, with which we have an on-going relation; students have been active there annually since the inception of the BKK Project Center. We have worked with the Bangkok Science Center and with IBSRAM (International Board for Soil Research and Management). Projects have also been sponsored by government agencies, such as the Department of Fisheries and the Bangkok Metropolitan Regional Transit Authority.
Many of the projects have had an environmental focus. The Department of Fisheries project concerned the environmental impact of shrimp farming. Chulalongkorn University sponsored studies of the recycling of polyethylene, the substitution of plastic for wood in certain outdoor applications, energy consumption and greenhouse gases in Southeast Asia, and chemical safety and recycling.
Our work with the Duang Prateep Foundation has centered around serving needs of the people of that community. We implemented public information campaigns aimed at people who were affected by the 1991 chemical explosion in the port and at informing pregnant women about the dangers of certain kinds of medicinal drugs. In 2000 we established a computer kindergarten for children aged 3-6 in the Klong Toey community. All of these projects, and others not mentioned here, have had a beneficial impact on the lives of those people targeted in the community.
An example of how the students' technical skills can be put to use in a non-technical setting is provided by a recent project at the National Museum, Bangkok. The students organized a database system in which to record all the museum's artifacts. Before the students began their work, the only records of these works existed on paper where they were obviously very destructible. In this project, as in so many others, the students learned how their skills had to be adapted to meet the needs of people with a different cultural background and world view. That process reflects a major goal of the project program, which is to give the students an understanding that scientific and technological developments cannot be simply transplanted wholesale from a western culture to non-western cultures.
Some of our projects have involved us with the private sector. We did some studies for UNOCAL to help Thai managers become acclimated to and comfortable in a globalized workplace. Our UNOCAL liaison also sponsored a project that documented many of the technologically-oriented projects that had been sponsored by His Majesty the King.
Although most of our activity has been centered in Bangkok, we have not been confined to the capital. The shrimp farming study took students to Nakhon Si Thammarat. The IBSRAM projects took student groups to the North and the Northeast, and a recent study of air pollution had the students living for three weeks in Maemoh, site of a coal burning power plant. (This project was sponsored by the Department of Public Health, Chulalongkorn University.) The students demonstrated an ability and willingness to adapt and live in conditions rather less comfortable than those they were accustomed to in Bangkok. They also valued the opportunity to become acquainted with the "real" Thailand outside Bangkok.
Sponsoring a Project
Sponsoring agencies are asked to identify a liaison--the person(s) who can meet regularly with the students and provide them with information, feedback, and direction. The WPI resident advisors also work closely with the students and liaisons throughout the project; they are responsible for grading the students, providing guidance, and keeping the students on schedule. The student project team delivers its results, conclusions, and recommendations to the sponsor in the form of a written report and an oral presentation.
The students for next year's program in Bangkok will spend two months at the WPI campus preparing for their projects, and will then be in residence in Bangkok from early January until the end of February of 2002--a total of 8 weeks of fulltime (50 hours per week per student) effort. The project work sometimes requires the student teams to travel around Thailand to collect information, observe and interview, and/or to implement their solutions, but they generally are in Bangkok the majority of the time. A total of 30 students (approximately 8 project teams) and 2 resident advisors will be involved next year.
What WPI Provides:
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A team of carefully selected and prepared students. The students apply to the Bangkok Project Center by submitting an application, writing an essay, and participating in an interview. They are selected based on previous academic performance, ability to work in teams, relevant background, motivation, and self-direction. The teams are typically comprised of three or four students in the third year of programs of study in engineering, science, and management.
During the two months prior to arrival in Bangkok (November and December 2001), the student teams develop specific goals for the project, conduct background research, determine appropriate methods, and prepare a formal written proposal which is sent to the project sponsor before they arrive. It is very helpful if the liaison is occasionally available to respond to inquiries from the students via fax or e-mail during this preparation period.
In addition to the preparation work, the students work fulltime for 8 weeks in Thailand, for a total of about 1600 person-hours of effort for the sponsor from a 4-student team. WPI will arrange for the students' housing in Bangkok, as well as arrange for their travel.
- WPI advisors. Two experienced WPI professors will be in residence in Bangkok for the duration of the projects, serving as advisors to the students, and will work with the sponsors to help guide the students' work.
- Results and Documentation. The students will provide the sponsor with:
- Whatever recommendations or deliverables are appropriate to the project;
- An extensive, formal project report detailing the project process and results; and
- A formal presentation in which they will describe their results to the sponsor.
What the Project Sponsor is Asked to Provide:
- A problem of suitable scope for 3 students to address in 8 weeks time. This problem should be determined in advance (by September of 2001) so that the students can develop specific goals and a project proposal in the November-December timeframe.
- A place for the students to work, and access to any information, equipment, or facilities needed for the project, including computer, printer, and internet access if at all possible.
- Involvement from someone at the organization who can serve as the project liaison and help provide guidance, answer questions, and point the students toward resources and information. The liaison should be available to meet with the students on a regular basis, and with the students and advisors as needed. So that the students' work during their preparation at WPI can be productive, we ask that this person be willing to respond to questions and react to the students' proposal by fax or e-mail during the preparation period.
- Assistance with direct project-related expenses, such as student travel costs within Thailand, or any necessary materials and supplies. Since the students are working for academic credit, they are not employees and are not paid by the project sponsor. Students pay for their own airfare, housing, and meals.
Last modified: November 06, 2006 15:33:21