Mathematics INstruction using Decision Science and Engineering Tools (MINDSET) is a collaboration between educators, engineers and mathematicians at three universities to create, implement, and evaluate a new curriculum and textbook to teach standard mathematics concepts using math-based decision-making tools for a non-calculus fourth-year mathematics curriculum that several states now require and others may require in the near future. MINDSET has three goals: 1) enhancement of students? mathematical ability, especially their ability to formulate and solve multi-step problems and interpret results; 2) improvement in students? attitude toward mathematics, especially those from underrepresented groups, thereby motivating them to study mathematics; and 3) adoption of the curriculum initially in North Carolina and Michigan, then in other states. Using decision-making tools from Operations Research and Industrial Engineering, we will develop a fourth-year high school curriculum in mathematics and support materials to teach standard content. Through a multi-state, multi-school district assessment, we will determine if a statistically significant improvement in students? mathematical ability, particularly in multi-step problem-solving and interpretation of results, and in motivation and attitude toward mathematics, has occurred. Participating teachers will receive professional training, help to create a knowledge-based online community for support, and receive in-person and online technical assistance. Through extensive data collection and analysis, we will determine if this infrastructure is sustainable and sufficiently flexible to be reproduced and utilized by others.

Internationally, engineering is a certification-driven profession. In the U.S. and in Brazil, as well as in the European Union, Canada, Mexico and the rest of South America, you cannot practice engineering without graduating from an accredited engineering school. In addition, in the U.S. and many countries engineers must be independently licensed by the government to practice. As a consequence, engineering is a certification-driven profession. This is good as it protects the public but it creates a problem in establishing formal exchange programs. Engineering students and their potential employers want certification that the exchange had academic value, academic rigor and engineering related content. Without certification students and their parents are reluctant to invest in an engineering exchange activity and employers do not recognize the exchange activity as having value. What is needed is an engineering exchange program that certifies the student learned the foreign language and successfully completed engineering related course work. Our project intends to establish an engineering exchange program between three large engineering schools in the U.S. and three large engineering schools in Brazil in which students who successfully complete the exchange program receive certification of the accomplishment. As part of the exchange activities we will establish engineering equivalency between engineering programs at the U.S. and Brazilian universities so that students can take courses at the foreign university consistent with the engineering degree requirements of their home institution. This will allow them to participate in the exchange program without significantly increasing their degree completion time. Since the courses will be in Portuguese the students will first obtain Portuguese language competency through formal language education. They will also become familiar with the technical cultural aspects working with engineers from different countries. To achieve these results the project has the following objectives: 1) Establish an institutionally based engineering exchange program; 2) Establish a Global Engineering Certificate awarded by the hosting university to foreign students; 3) Establish an International Engineering Certificate awarded by the U.S. university to U.S. engineering students; and 4) Establish Engineering Equivalency between the three engineering programs in the U.S. and the three engineering programs in Brazil to assist the respective governments in establishing a mutual recognition agreement via the Western Hemisphere Initiative (see section 5) between the U.S's ABET and Brazil's CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico) engineering accrediting agencies that recognizes the equivalency.