The internet, social media, smart phones, and modern transportation networks are rapidly shrinking the distances between people and erasing longstanding boundar­ies between cultures. While such changes also bring challenges, it’s clear that globalization is here to stay—and its benefits can be invaluable, especially in the area of education. The open exchange between researchers, professors, and students across the world has led to greater cultural awareness and sensitivity as well as significant breakthroughs in diplomacy, the arts, medicine, and technology.

CALCE has always promoted fundamental research cooperation across national boundaries. CALCE’s goal has been to conduct high quality, cooperative research with leading universities and companies, regardless of their location in the world, in order to benefit the international high-tech community by helping them produce reli­able, safe, and operationally-available products and systems.

CALCE has been very active in drawing stu­dents and researchers from some of the world’s top universities, including Mannheim University of Applied Sciences and Braunschweig/Wolfen­buttel University of Applied Sciences in Germa­ny; Ecole National Superieure des Ingenieurs en Arts Chimiques Et Technologiques in France; Po­litecnico di Torino in Italy; Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Science and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China; the Indian Institutes of Technology in India; Seoul National University and KAIST in Korea; and Yokohama National University and Kyushu University in Japan.

CALCE also hosts interns from countries such as France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Leb­anon Macedonia, China, Mongolia, and South Korea. These students, researchers, and interns come to CALCE to experience the American aca­demic setting as well as to contribute to innova­tions in the latest technology and methodologies. Graduates emerge from CALCE’s rigorous academic program well-prepared for the diverse challenges of international industry. Dr. Lei Nie, a 2009 CALCE Ph.D. graduate who now works for Intel, noted, “The work at CALCE was not easy in the beginning, but after getting used to it, I experienced many benefits.” A 2004 Ph.D. graduate who now works for the U.S. Department of Defense, Dr. Keith Rogers, also recently sent an email to CALCE saying, “I can really say that the education at CALCE under your supervision outfits the student with all the tools needed to suc­ceed in the real world.”

CALCE alumni have consistently gone on to successful careers in top-ranked companies, in­cluding Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP, Microsoft, GE, General Motors, Northrop Grumman, Oracle, Schlumberger, Boeing, and EADS. Many of our students have also gone on to work for the U.S. government, including NASA, NIST, and the De­partment of Defense. Others have gone on to suc­cessful careers in academia, such as 1993 Ph.D. recipient Dr. Pradeep Lall, who is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the director of the NSF-CAVE3 Electronics Re­search Center at Auburn University. As one cur­rent student observed, “Jobs are never a problem for a CALCE student.”

In addition to welcoming students, CALCE’s international reach also involves invit­ing professors and researchers to visit from lo­cales as diverse as France, Israel, England, India, China, Korea, and Japan—as well as many U.S. universities. These professors and researchers come to teach classes, share their experience, and educate CALCE students in the latest technologi­cal developments. Some of these visitors stay at CALCE for an entire year, interacting with stu­dents, conducting experiments, and collaborating on papers and projects. Each of them contributes significantly to the unique international learning experience at CALCE.

CALCE also has relationships with several international universities on a larger scale. For example, CALCE and the Integrated Vehicle Health Management Center at Cranfield Uni­versity in the UK are collaborating on research in the areas of prognostics and health manage­ment (PHM) and reliability. Also in the area of PHM, CALCE has close ties with the University of Greenwich in the UK and the PHM Centre at the City University of Hong Kong. In addi­tion, CALCE has formal arrangements with the American University of Beirut, City University of Hong Kong, and Beihang University for stu­dent exchange programs.

Education is central to CALCE’s mission. Since 1987, over 250 students have graduated from CALCE. Our graduates routinely credit CALCE and their experience here with giving them the tools they need to succeed in their ca­reers. Our emphasis on bringing international students and researchers to the U.S. has brought benefits not only to the students themselves, but also to the U.S. research community and the com­panies and institutions that employ them. As our alumni have spread out around the world, they have added to CALCE’s international reach and exposure. In return, we at CALCE have been able to keep pace with the latest high-tech develop­ments around the world while impacting many of the top companies in the global electronics industry.

If your organization is interested in utilizing CALCE expertise and resources, you can contact me directly at pecht@calce.umd.edu.

Michael Pecht
Chair Professor and Director