Resumen de Assessing needs in a cross-cultural design project: student perspectives and challenges

Robert P. Loweth, Shanna R. Daly, Jiangqiong Liu, Kathleen H. Sienko

• Effective identification and evaluation of stakeholder needs is an important part of cross-cultural design projects that greatlyincreases the likelihood of project success. Engineering students are increasingly participating in cross-cultural design projects;however, few studies have described what processes students use when identifying and evaluating needs in cross-cultural settings.This study followed an undergraduate student team as they conducted a needs assessment in a rural South American community.From this experience, participants developed conceptions of best practices for identifying their own subjectivity, soliciting manystakeholder perspectives, and engaging their partner community. However, participants also struggled to employ a variety of datacollection methods strategically and analyze their data effectively. To address these challenges, engineering students requirepedagogical support in specifying goals and collecting and analyzing qualitative data.