What early explorers once believed about the surface of the planet is actually true, in a purely metaphorical sense: The world is flat!  With advances in web technologies, anyone can collaborate and do business with any individual or corporation around the globe. This new ability of intellectual exchange and trade via commercial flatness is “globalization level three,” according to Thomas L. Freidman, author of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the 21^st Century (2005). 

Narayana Murthy, Chairman of Infosys Technologies, Ltd., defines globalization as “sourcing where it is best, using talent where it is best, and marketing products where there are no boundaries.” The added benefit of globalization is in bringing products to market faster with the help of people working in many locations and time zones.

There has been much reporting and debate about the future of education and the engineering profession. The National Academy of Engineering’s "Engineering of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century"  is a two-part strategic initiative that studies the future of engineering education and the profession itself in the first phase, and will “build on the phase-one visions of engineering to develop strategies and concrete plans for engineering education” in phase two.

For additional information about the international academic and research programs at the Viterbi School of Engineering, please contact Prof. Raghu Raghavendra, Sr. Associate Dean for Strategic Initiatives, at raghu@usc.edu