< Back

Inspiring Stories: Cross Cultural Competency

Campus Knowing KNOT

Card image

Time: Mon 20-Oct 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: John Yencken Building [45], Level 1

Knowing Enabling Technologies Campus Event

About this session

As engineering challenges become increasingly global, complex, and community-focused, there is growing recognition of the need to embed cross-cultural competency into the engineering curriculum. Effective stakeholder engagement, cultural humility, and ethical awareness have already been recognised as essential in humanitarian and development contexts, yet traditional engineering education often lacks structured opportunities for students to develop these skills and employ them in broader engineering contexts. Service-Learning programmes have often borne the brunt of fostering cross-cultural skills in students, which has led to mixed success and reinforces the idea that these competencies are optional extras, rather than essential to modern engineering practice. This workshop will explore cross-cultural competency as a core professional attribute for engineers and the potential for incorporating it into mainstream engineering education.

The workshop will involve a presentation of Jessica’s ongoing research into cross-cultural competency, with interactive group activities to explore the integration of cross-cultural skills in engineering education. Students will be encouraged to share their own experiences and insights and reflect upon what it means to be an engineer in the 21st century.

Who: Jessica Landstra

Jess is an Honours student, finalising her double degree in Systems Engineering and International Security Studies. Her areas of special interest and research include humanitarian engineering, user-centred design, and diversity in engineering. She has been studying and tutoring at ANU for six years.

Summary

About Campus Knowing KNOTs.

Campus Knowing KNOTs are a way to explore learning opportunities that are running on Campus.

Find out more about Campus Knowing KNOTs.

Advice

The following format can used to build up a point towards a Campus Knowing KNOT:

  • at least three hours spent attending public lectures, faculty talks, special events or other activity that involves academics or other recognised thought leaders on ANU campus
  • the time may be accumulated at one event, or spread over several events, during the time you are enrolled in the course
  • the topic must relate to SoCIETIE values

Note that a Campus Knowing KNOT may be made up of multiple events, with an expectation that attendance totals approximately three hours per point. A maximum of 2 points on a Campus Knowing KNOT can be claimed per semester.

Completion

The default completion task for a Campus Knowing KNOT is a 200-word reflection. As a starting point, we encourage you to base the reflection on "a question that you asked at the event (or would have asked if there was time)". We would love to see a photo of you at the event or social media post with the reflection.