As the global economy becomes ever more interconnected, the College of Engineering becomes ever more ingrained in the world. This year, we inked an agreement to expand the acclaimed International Engineering Program to Italy.

Also in 2012, the International Engineering Program won an esteemed Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education with the judges calling the program “a model for engineering and language educators across the entire country.”

Our global impact is not confined to the International Engineering Program. In 2012, we saw students and faculty travel to Guatemala to assist in designing systems to provide clean water. URI engineering students traveled to the Black Sea in Europe and the frigid waters of Antarctica to assist with ocean research studies. And a team of engineering and computer science students paired up to develop a calculator to assist USAID and its worldwide mission.

It was a year that left little doubt that our engineers reach beyond the Kingston Campus.

The World is their Classroom

There’s no better way to learn about the world than traveling it. This fiscal year, 13 URI students received scholarships to study overseas thanks to the Beatrice S. Demers Fund. Of the winners, 10 were members of the college’s International Engineering Program.

Selected from a pool of 85 applicants, the students received a total of $143,575 in grant awards, ranging from $9,000 to $14,000. The fellowships cover the cost of tuition, fees, travel, housing and living.

“Studying abroad like this provides opportunities to get places that are usually inaccessible,’’ German IEP student Anthony Ragusa says. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I’m glad the Demers scholarship helped me achieve it.’’

Ragusa will study in Germany during the 2013-2014 academic year. His fellow IEP winners will study there, in China and in Spain. The students will also spend a semester interning at a global engineering firm under the program that awards students two degrees: one in a foreign language and one in an engineering discipline.

Students say graduating college with expertise in engineering and another language – German, Spanish, Chinese, French or Italian – positions them to become part of the global engineering culture.

“This is such a great opportunity and I’ve always been a big fan of the Spanish culture,’’ says Spanish IEP student Michael Smith, who will study in Spain. “Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, so learning it will be useful in my career.’’

The fellowships were established by Demers, who spent her life teaching foreign languages, first to students in the Pawtucket schools and then to students at URI, where she taught for more than 30 years. She was fluent in French, German and Spanish and studied Chinese and Russian in her 70s.

After her death in 2007, she left $4 million to the Rhode Island Foundation to establish the fund. The first fellowships were awarded in 2011.

IEP Fellow Winners

Jonathan Aguire, Teschnische Universität Braunschweig.
Dana Demers, TECNUN-University of Navarra.
Kevin Drumm, TECNUN-University of Navarra.
Umutoni Gatali, TECNUN-University of Navarra.
Eli Lamothe, Teschnische Universität Braunschweig.
Anthony Ragusa, Teschnische Universität Braunschweig.
Michael Smith, Universidad de Cantabria.
Preston Steele, Universidad de Zaragoza.
Sarah Wood, Zhejiang University.
Nicholas Zonfrillo, Teschnische Universität Braunschweig.

 

Return to the Annual Report Table of Contents.