KINGSTON, R.I. – July 11, 2025 – The University of Rhode Island has over 100 international partnerships and agreements. URI’s influence extends well beyond the Northeast—across the Atlantic and around the world. Among these numerous collaborations, one of the most enduring and consequential is URI’s partnership with Technische Universität Braunschweig.

Since its inception three decades ago, nearly a thousand students have participated in the TU Braunschweig-URI exchange. On Friday, June 6, URI held a celebration of the 30-year-old strategic partnership with the German university.

Organized by URI’s Office of Global Initiatives, URI hosted TU Braunschweig President Angela Ittel, along with senior faculty and staff. The agenda included an inaugural ceremony; a luncheon with faculty, alumni, students, and staff; and an evening banquet hosted by President Marc Parlange. 

TU Braunschweig collaborates with colleges across the URI campus, but the partnership’s foundation is rooted in URI’s College of Engineering and the International Engineering Program.

John Grandin, a professor of German, joined forces with Hermann Viets, then dean of the College of Engineering, in 1987 to launch what was initially intended to be a five-year program. Their aim was to bolster enrollment in Grandin’s German courses and to connect Viets’ engineering students with internships at major firms like BMW, Siemens, and Bosch. 

Through Grandin and Viets’ hard work in 1997, the IEP program was established as the first U.S dual bachelor’s degree program, a B.S. in an engineering discipline with a simultaneous B.A. in German (later expanded to French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and Global Language and Area Studies). While it started out with engineering undergraduates pursuing a semester of internship in Germany, the IEP added a semester of study abroad in 1995 following an invitation by the Technische Universität Braunschweig. The IEP has since featured a full academic year of studying and interning abroad.

Over the last three decades the partnership between the Technische Universität Braunschweig and the Colleges of Engineering and Arts and Sciences has expanded to include the Colleges of Pharmacy, Business, and Education.

“This partnership really demonstrates a relationship that’s based on intentionality and stewardship, representing the core curricular components at each university,” said Kristin Johnson, vice provost for global initiatives.

Johnson, whose office oversees global partnerships, finds it fascinating to compare them—even those as venerable as TU Braunschweig’s. She says that while many of URI’s collaborations have endured, few have flourished as vibrantly as the one with TU Braunschweig.

Though rooted in academia, the partnership transcends education. Over the years, the two universities have partnered on collaborative research grants and on such events as film festivals, and even a Mario Kart tournament.

“It’s important to make sure that students who come to URI and go to TU Braunschweig have good experiences,” said Johnson. “The parts that make them flourish are things like that—that are deep, interesting and engaging.”

Such experiences have left a lasting impression on so many students on both sides of the exchange. One such individual is Anneke Neber, a dual master’s student in ocean engineering.

“Coming to URI for me has really helped me to deepen my knowledge of ocean related technologies, as it allows me to focus solemnly on Ocean Engineering topics this past year. It has been a great opportunity to get new insights on numerical simulations for me, as well as gaining practical experience. Apart from the language skills, and being part of international collaborations, it is really all the great people that I was able to meet and all the amazing friends I was able to make. This has been an incredible year and I want to thank everyone who has made it possible,” said Neber as a part of her remarks at the event.

Another graduate for whom this longstanding transatlantic connection has had an especially deep impact is Hanno Teiwes, an alumnus of the URI-TU Braunschweig dual master’s program in mechanical engineering. Teiwes went on to a global career with the Volkswagen group where he worked first in Wolfsburg, then Chattanooga, Tennessee, and now back in Wolfsburg.

Initially hesitant to study abroad, preferring to do so through an employer, Teiwes changed course after seeing a flyer and attending a presentation. After a year and a half of preparation, he arrived at URI in August 2013.

He’d been to the U.S. before, but like anyone leaving home he had mixed emotions.

“The welcome week of the international office helped me a lot to meet new friends, future roommates and to become familiar with my new home,” said Teiwes. “Over time, I found a second home and even now the memory of a great year still remains with me.”

It’s a memory he treasures—not only because Rhode Island became a second home, but because Kingston and the partnership led him to his wife.

Their meeting was serendipitous. She was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in international management at the College of Business. Her exchange program was with a different partner university in Hamburg. But they met at the orientation for international undergraduates, where Teiwes and his friends invited her group to a barbecue.

“I went to it, even though it wasn’t really meant for us to be there but there was free drinks and free food, so we stayed,” said Teiwes.

They found they both lived in the International Living & Learning Community where IEP students preparing to study abroad mix with international students from abroad and from there struck up a friendship that turned into more.

While at the URI-TU Braunschweig celebration, Teiwes commented: “My master thesis supervisor Prof. Fahgri kept me busy doing research in the microfluidic area with paper-based enzyme linked immunoassays to detect sepsis as well as writing my thesis proposal. He always had the motto that if something is not working as it should be, you have to try harder and again and again and again until it works. All of the attributes that I learned within the year at URI defined the way I completed my second master thesis as well as my PhD-research with Volkswagen. Hard work pays off in the end.”

Teiwes was eager to return to URI’s campus, having last visited in 2022 for a friend’s wedding. During that trip, he reconnected with his thesis advisor, professor Mohammad Faghri of the College of Engineering, and was impressed by the new Fascitelli Center for Advanced Engineering. Still, he admitted that he knew this visit would feel different. Not because it’s only been three years, but because many of his friends have since moved on.

“My excitement comes from the people that I spent my time with, who of course aren’t there anymore,” said Teiwes. “Luckily, I have my wife at my side who is and always will be my most important takeaway from URI.”

For more information and to review the full schedule of the celebration’s events, visit the University calendar. The recording of the celebration can also be viewed here.

This post has been edited from its original version, written by Nicholas Phillips and released June 4, to include some photos from the event as well as quotes from two exchange student speakers (Hanno Teiwes and Anneke Neber).