New Purdue efforts focus on Brazil
July 9, 2012
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University's Global Engineering Program has launched an initiative to form collaborations with academia and industry in Brazil.
The
initiative included three study abroad courses this summer oriented
toward engineering students in addition to two other classes offered in
agriculture, and language and culture.
"More than 50 Purdue
students and eight faculty visited Brazil this summer," said William
Anderson, director of the Global Engineering Program. "This is an
important step toward forging our partnerships there."
Central to
the initiative was a study abroad course involving 26 students who
delved into issues including alternative energy production,
transportation infrastructure, ecology and the environment. The course
was developed by Monica Prezzi and Rodrigo Salgado, both professors of civil engineering.
"The
program was very comprehensive, in terms of technical content," Prezzi
said. "We had university, academic and industrial hosts."
Such study abroad efforts benefit the students as well as the local and Purdue communities, Salgado said.
"Any
time you can establish or strengthen ties with the fifth-largest
economy in the world, you are going to realize benefits," he said. "It's
beneficial for Purdue students and faculty and for local businesses to
interact with this dynamic economy and for our students to be able to
work there, whether permanently or temporarily. At the same time, Brazil
sends thousands of students abroad with full scholarships every year,
and Purdue should make an effort to attract these students."
The
Purdue students visited the Itaipu Dam and its bio sanctuary, created to
mitigate the impacts of construction on wildlife and the environment,
near the border with Argentina and Paraguay; the Santa Cruz Ethanol
Plant near Sao Carlos; an airline aircraft maintenance facility in Sao
Carlos; the University of Sao Paulo at Sao Carlos; a new subway line
construction site in the city of Sao Paulo; a port construction site in
the state of Rio de Janeiro; the Port of Acu "superport complex" under
construction in Campos; the Petrobras research center in Rio de Janeiro;
and the graduate program of COPPE-UFRJ, a university in Rio de Janeiro.
"Brazil
is a country of important significance in the world, and its stature
and prominence will only continue to grow both politically and
economically," said Michael A. Brzezinski, dean of international
programs. "Purdue is actively engaging the country through faculty
research and now, thanks to the College of Engineering, via student
learning opportunities as well."
Melba Crawford, interim head of
the School of Civil Engineering and associate dean of Engineering for
Research, said all three courses are in areas of strategic interest to
the College of Engineering.
"The interdisciplinary course led by
Prezzi and Salgado provided the type of opportunity we strongly endorse
for our students to experience multiple aspects of the profession," she
said.
One of the other engineering-oriented study abroad
courses, led by Lia Stanciu, an associate professor of materials
engineering, focused on the use of biosensors for environmental
monitoring in the rainforest. The other course, led by Anderson, focused
on the use of "remote sensing" from satellites and aircraft to study
global climate change and the rainforest.
"The major technical
theme of this program was the role of the rainforest in global
climatology and how remote sensing is being used to monitor its health,"
Anderson said.
Other topics included forest ecology, land use
change, and the role of indigenous peoples in conservation efforts.
After a series of lectures and visits with academic researchers and to
the Brazilian space agency INPE, the students spent four days in
Amazonia for firsthand observations.
Inez Hua, a civil
engineering professor and Global Engineering Program associate director
for Latin America, is leading a College of Engineering initiative to
develop research and education collaborations in Brazil. Hua and
Nicholas Carpita, a professor in the Department of Botany and Plant
Pathology, led a Purdue delegation to universities, industry, and
government agencies in Sao Paulo state.
"Our meetings were very
productive, and I'm confident that we'll develop long-term
collaborations with our university and corporate partners in Brazil,"
Hua said.
Prezzi and Salgado, who are Brazilian, began developing
their study-abroad course two years ago, and the other two courses were
added later.
"This is something that's natural for us," Prezzi
said. "Being from Brazil, we have a network of connections there. We
know the geography and the language, we know how institutions and
government agencies work, we know the university system. This
familiarity enables you to provide the best experience possible for the
students."
Of the 26 undergraduate students in the Brazilian course, 12 were women.
"This
is unusual because engineering courses typically have lower percentages
of female students," Salgado said. "Even more interesting is the fact
that we have students from a broad representation of engineering
disciplines, including chemical engineering, mechanical engineering,
industrial engineering, and aeronautics and astronautics. There are many
opportunities for jobs in a broad range of industries in Brazil, and
there is a well-developed university system. Our students need to better
understand how business and institutions work there. This program will
help them to establish interactions with other students, professors and
private industry in Brazil."
Information about the study abroad course is available at: https://plus.google.com/117647761151137590110/posts
Writer: Emil Venere, 765-494-4709, venere@purdue.edu
Sources: Monica Prezzi, 765-494-5034, mprezzi@purdue.edu
Rodrigo Salgado, 765-494-5030, rodrigo@ecn.purdue.edu
William Anderson, 765-496-2658, wanderso@purdue.edu
Michael A. Brzezinski, 765 494-9399, mbrzezinski@purdue.edu
Inez Hua, 765-494-2409, hua@bridge.ecn.purdue.edu
Related websites:
Global Engineering Program, Global Design Teams