Fall '07/Winter '08: REACH Experience

REACH Experience
The Summer@Rensselaer offers a variety of faculty-led short-term study abroad programs through the Office of Undergraduate Education. For example, students taking Thermal & Fluids Engineering Laboratory will have the opportunity to travel to Constantza, Romania, while learning about technologies for sustainable energy. Led by assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering and Romanian native Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc, students learn the principles of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics relevant to wind power and fuel cell technologies - through experiments, field trips, and interaction with researchers and engineers from southeastern Romania.

The Summer@Rensselaer offers a variety of faculty-led short-term study abroad programs through the Office of Undergraduate Education. For example, students taking Thermal & Fluids Engineering Laboratory will have the opportunity to travel to Constantza, Romania, while learning about technologies for sustainable energy. Led by assistant professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering and Romanian native Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc, students learn the principles of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics relevant to wind power and fuel cell technologies—through experiments, field trips, and interaction with researchers and engineers from southeastern Romania.

“Many of our international short courses are led by faculty who travel extensively or are natives of the host country,” notes Kim Scalzo, director of Rensselaer’s outreach programs. “Making a personal connection to the host country adds a valuable dimension to the student experience,” she adds. Currently, the summer of 2008 includes faculty-led courses from Engineering, Management, and Humanities in Australia, Ireland, Italy, and China—all designed to change students’ thinking. In fact, one course from the Cognitive Sciences department is devoted to comparing east-west thinking and higher-order cognition. Another from the Lally School of Management and Technology puts students in teams with Chinese peers to improve employee effectiveness—including field trips to local companies and communities in China.

“The Summer@Rensselaer program is an excellent opportunity for students to gain global experience,” notes Lester Gerhardt, associate dean of engineering and director of international programs for the School of Engineering. “It’s another example of how Rensselaer is pioneering new international opportunities for our students,” he adds.
Since 1963 Semester at Sea® (SAS) has offered students the rare opportunity to travel the world aboard a floating university. “Each country broadens my mind a little,” notes one SAS alumnus. SAS and Rensselaer alumnus Sean O’Sullivan agrees. O’Sullivan, for his part, has offered to help to intially defray some the costs of the Semester at Sea program for up to 100 Rensselaer students. In response, SAS is making several engineering courses available on specific voyages.

Since 1963 Semester at Sea® (SAS) has offered students the rare opportunity to travel the world aboard a floating university. “Each country broadens my mind a little,” notes one SAS alumnus. SAS and Rensselaer alumnus Sean O’Sullivan agrees. O’Sullivan, for his part, has offered to help to intially defray some the costs of the Semester at Sea program for up to 100 Rensselaer students. In response, SAS is making several engineering courses available on specific voyages.

The shipboard curriculum offers students insights into various cultures and societies and teaches them how to analyze their real-life encounters. These intellectual tools are training for life—allowing students to understand new places while relating past experiences to future situations.

SAS offers a special cohort of classes designed for engineering students wishing to enhance their education with a cross-cultural, comparative studies experience. These engineering courses, which integrate classroom and international fieldwork, are taught by pre-eminent faculty and offer academic credit through SAS’s academic sponsor, the University of Virginia.

Each summer cohort of engineering courses varies thematically—last summer it was civil engineering. Students studied and visited engineering marvels of the Aztecs, Incas, and Mayas, as well as the Panama Canal. In one engineering course, students analyzed the design of pre-Columbian structures, as well as some contemporary structures in Central and South America, from a civil engineering perspective. Another course in engineering geology offered an in-depth study of a range of geologic hazards found in Latin America and their impact on civil engineering planning and design.
Since 2002, Engineers Without Borders - International (EWB) has been working as a humanitarian engineering network for a better world. EWB facilitates collaborations among its member groups toward improving the quality of life in disadvantaged communities worldwide through education and sustainable engineering projects.

Since 2002, Engineers Without Borders– International (EWB) has been working as a humanitarian engineering network for a better world. EWB facilitates collaborations among its member groups toward improving the quality of life in disadvantaged communities worldwide through education and sustainable engineering projects, EWB believes that:

  • education develops a new generation of engineers, who will benefit from seeing the many facets of engineering solutions to problems in developing communities, beyond the technical skills obtained in their basic education. The education of host-community partners is also a core EWB value.

EWB offers students a wide variety of projects and programs. EWB educational programs range from courses and hands-on projects in sustainable engineering through world-renowned programs, including The International Center for Science and High Technology (ICS) of UNIDO, based in Trieste, Italy, University of Cambridge, U.K. Centre for Sustainable Development, and Solar Energy International (SEI).
The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship.

The Peace Corps traces its roots and mission to 1960, when then Senator John F. Kennedy challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. From that inspiration grew an agency of the federal government devoted to world peace and friendship.

Since that time, more than 190,000 Peace Corps volunteers have been invited by 139 host countries to work on issues ranging from AIDS education to information technology and environmental preservation.

Today’s Peace Corps is more vital than ever, working in emerging and essential areas such as information technology and business development, and committing more than 1,000 new volunteers as a part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Peace Corps volunteers continue to help countless individuals who want to build a better life for themselves, their children, and their communities.
Founded in 2002, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is building the next generation of engineers, teachers, learners, and communities. ESW educates, trains, and mobilizes young engineers across the United States to meet the needs of current and future generations of people across the world.

Founded in 2002, Engineers for a Sustainable World (ESW) is building the next generation of engineers, teachers, learners, and communities. ESW educates, trains, and mobilizes young engineers across the United States to meet the needs of current and future generations of people across the world. ESW’s primary goals are to:

  • stimulate and foster an increasly
    • diverse community of engineers.
  • infuse sustainability into the practice and studies of every engineer.

ESW’s community development approach focuses on building multi-sector partnerships to create lasting, widespread change. ESW works with on-the-ground partners to develop and employ solutions that are locally appropriate and sustainable— environmentally, socially, and economically. Projects range from improved wastewater treatment in Portobelo, Panama, to Senegalese solar ovens in Yoff, Senegal, to structural awareness for seismic safety, Istanbul, Turkey. Plus, ESW offers a Summer Engineering Experience in Development (SEED) program, where engineering students and professionals are placed together on global service projects— improving the lives of people around the world.

REACH Partners
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