Grace Hopper Celebration Proposal Draft

Youyou (a Chinese girl from DDP 06) and I are trying to put up a panel about DDP for Grace Hopper 2010. I think our program fits this year's theme is "Collaborating Across Boundaries". We just finished the proposal draft. It is definitely not something well written, but at least something I think can attach here to count as one post. :p

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Cross cultural collaboration between different institutions has been increasingly important due to globalization. While exchange programs are the most popular choice for internationalization, a Dual dual Degree degree Program program presents a more deepened model of collaboration. A typical computing science DDP would consist of the following characteristics dual degree program would consists of studying experiences in both collaborating institutions and students being granted degrees from both schools in the end.: students spend several years studying computing science in both collaborating institutions; they will be granted degrees from both schools. In this panel, we will use the DDP program between Simon Fraser University and Zhejiang University as an example to discuss how such programs influence involved students and faculty.
Dual Degree Program of Computing between Simon Fraser University and Zhejiang University was launched in 2005 and has been recruiting students from both universities every year since then.
Simon Fraser University (SFU) and Zhejiang University (ZU) have had a DDP collaboration in computing science since 2005. Though some policies in the program are still being refined, they are mature enough for us to analyze DDP’s current state and examine how to further its development.
The panel will cover following information:

Administrative aspects
• Program Structure and Benefits
(I think we should add some content to cover the benefits)
• Difficulties:
- Two institutions may have different requirements on admission (e.g. English proficiency)
- Language barrier. Especially for Canadian students who typically are required to a fairly high proficiency level of Chinese in order to understand lectures in China.
- Education background. Students from China and Canada have very different high school curriculum, but the curriculum for the university is designed based on their local high school curriculum.
- Prerequisite transfers between institutions. Similar courses in different institutions may have different focus and depth.
• Specially designed policies for SFU-ZU DDP
- Each institution has set up dedicated advising/admin staff to provide contact point for students and faculty, specialized expertise in new program.
- Each Two institutions exchanges faculty members to teach at other university each year.
- SFU has established a Capstone project dedicated to DDP students.

SFU-ZU DDP related Faculty members’ experience:
• The exchanged faculty members play an essential role in helpingin helping students prepare themselves for their studying and living abroad for everyday life.
• How SFU faculty members adapt to the newly-established Capstone project, and guide DDP students throughout their research.
• Faculty members have gained in-depth cross cultural experience.

DDP students’ experience:
• Comparing our DDP program with other exchange programs, students feel that DDP provides more involving intercultural experience.
• With different cultures and strengths, both institutions promote students’ competitiveness in different areas.
• Students find the keys of how to succeed in such a program through their own experience.

How our DDP promotes women in computing science
• Statistics show that DDP enrols more female students than general computing science program in SFU.
• We conjecture that the female students are more interested in the DDP program because of the international experience component.
• Female students in the DDP take an active part in Women In Computing Science in SFU and both the students and the organization benefit tremendously.