Akdere presented intercultural training strategy to NASA

Mesut Akdere​Mesut Akdere, associate professor of human resource development and a faculty fellow at the Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research, gave a presentation to the NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality Workshop in Huntsville, Alabama, entitled “Exploring Mixed Reality for Developing Intercultural Team Skills: Implications for Space Exploration Teams.” Akdere, who is the director of Purdue’s Human Resource Development Virtual Lab, talked about utilizing immersive technologies such as mixed reality to develop collaborative team skills.

While NASA has long been utilizing such technology in astronaut training for space walk and other mission-related tasks, a new approach may be in order to focus on developing team skills prior to space missions given the vast variety of cultural backgrounds of astronauts, particularly those in the International Space Station. Akdere spoke about training astronauts to be effective in intercultural teams — both in technical situations as well as everyday life scenarios in space­ — by helping them develop skills and attitudes openness, empathy and curiosity in order to more successfully collaborate with across difference.

(Written by Purdue News Service.)

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