The International Engineering Program and URI’s College of Engineering joined forces this summer for a European tour intended to formalize and expand collaboration agreements with our partner universities and companies abroad. As part of the IEP’s international relationship building efforts, this particular business trip came on the heels of a May 24th visit from President Claire Rossi and Director of International Relations Dr. Joanna Daaboul of the Université de Technologie de Compiègne (UTC) to launch a dual master’s program and enhance faculty collaboration with this French IEP partner school. We then were able to continue channeling our excitement and momentum into the overseas phase of our mission during the month of June, with corporate and academic meetings as well as research and internship showcases happening across Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
The first stop on this journey was the city of Braunschweig, the site of this year’s IEP advisory council meeting. Dean Anthony Marchese and Professors Sigrid Berka, Annette Grilli, Stephan Grilli and Carl Rousseau joined several IEP directors and IEP board members for a visit to Technische Universität Braunschweig, our longest-standing international exchange partner. (More information about the history of the TUBS/URI partnership in their magazine.) During the visit, our TU Braunschweig colleagues showcased several of their research institute highlights. Additionally, a letter of intent for expanded collaboration was signed by TU Braunschweig’s President Angela Ittel and now awaits the signature of URI’s President Parlange. TU Braunschweig also hosted IEP/COE for a wonderful networking/alumni dinner that evening, which featured speeches from Luisa Lindner, Hanno Teiwes and Tobias Lührig, all TUBS/URI dual master’s/MBA alumni, as well as the musical talents of pianist Dr. Manabu Takasawa, our Japanese IEP director.
In the following days, the IEP and COE team continued their partnership building trip with a stopover in the northern port city of Hamburg, Germany. The visit began with an alumni dinner and included a stop at Van Oord Offshore Wind. There, two of our IEP students, Stephen Follet ’23 (German/civil engineering) and Alek Boving 23 (German/ocean engineering) shared their current internship projects. The group also explored areas of research collaboration between Van Oord and our ocean engineering / oceanography faculty at URI, with Professor Stephan Grilli presenting on behalf of the URI delegation.
Next, the IEP and College of Engineering group headed to Lengerich, Germany. Here they visited Bischof+Klein, a family-owned company that produces flexible packaging and technical films for customers worldwide with a major focus on sustainability and innovation. Tobias Lührig, the CEO of Bischof+Klein, is not only an IEP board member but also both a TU Braunschweig/URI dual master’s (MS/MBA) and TU Darmstadt (PhD) alum. He is currently hosting two of our interns this year, Katie Field ’24 (German/mechanical engineering) and Avery Walsh ’23 (German/computer science). During the site visit, the IEP/COE team was able to take a behind-the-scenes tour of the production facilities, learn about the leadership’s implementation of innovation and change management and hear from Field and Walsh about their projects.
After stopping in Lengerich, the URI delegation traveled to Darmstadt, where the group met with electrical, mechanical and civil engineering faculty and staff at the Technische Universität Darmstadt. They learned about their hosts’ research activities and discussed expanding our existing academic collaboration and mobility programs. The alumni dinner, which took place at a nice, local spot, also had a great turnout. As with the other alumni gatherings during this summer’s travels, the IEP was grateful to see everyone there and hear about their latest accomplishments.
In August, URI then welcomed back to Rhode Island the first cohort of TUDa dual master’s program alumni as well as the first generation of GIEPers who studied in Darmstadt, celebrating their five-year reunion together in the place where it all began for them. Several TUBS alumni who lived in the IEP LLC at that time joined in as well.
Once the German portion of their journey was over, Dean Anthony Marchese, Professors Carl Rousseau and Sigrid Berka headed over to Bayonne in southern France, where French IEP Director Lars Erickson is setting up a new agreement with the University of Pau and the Adour Region (UPPA) for French IEP with civil and ocean engineering through its Institut Supérieur du Bâtiment et des Travaux publics (ISBA TP). The group also had a delightful dinner with two of ISABTP’s faculty before moving on to visit the University of Cantabria in northern Spain.
There, the group watched as IEP interns Anna Cetera ’24 (Spanish/biomedical engineering) and Meagan Olson ’23 (Spanish/civil engineering) demonstrated their research projects. Ali Akanda, grad director for civil engineering, joined online for the discussion on finalizing and promoting our dual master’s program in civil engineering with UNICAN. The group toured the impressive Instituto de Hidráulica Ambiental (IHCantabria) and got many inspirations for our own soon-to-be-built new bay campus. The university’s civil engineering labs had equipment ranging from 3D printing of concrete to wave pools, traffic monitoring systems and a fast spinning machine simulating cars to test the wear of asphalt on roads – all very interesting!
UNICAN’s Civil and Environmental Engineering School recently featured Meagan Olson in a promotional video, where she discussed her experiences as a part of the international exchange partnership between our two schools (you can view a clip here). As a follow up to this summer’s events and as a way to build upon this important relationship, the IEP and civil/ocean graduate directors from both URI and UNICAN in Spain will hold a joint hybrid info session on September 28th to promote our new dual master’s programs.
During the last leg of the IEP/COE European partnership trip at the end of June, the team visited one of the IEP’s Italian partner institutions, the University of Naples Parthenope. We have exchanged students with this university since 2018 and will receive its first mechanical/industrial engineering dual master’s candidate at URI this fall. This site visit included a meeting with Parthenope University’s president and time spent getting to know their engineering faculty. The group also paid a visit to Grastim JV, an innovative energy solutions company that has hosted Italian IEP interns and whose CEO, Gianfranco Milani, also serves on the IEP Advisory Board, and participated in a tour with Atena Future Technologies, a non-profit research group that specializes in developing hydroelectric power solutions for bikes, cars and heavy loading equipment used in ports. IEP Advisory Board member Professor Nicola Massarotti accompanied the group and provided a memorable experience at UNP and around Naples.
We are so happy to have had the opportunity throughout our trip to explore exponentially more new collaborations with several of our partners abroad and cannot wait to see what new possibilities our shared efforts will continue to create. We greatly appreciate the support of the URI Foundation and Alumni Engagement and TU Braunschweig in sponsoring our alumni activities this summer. Finally, we would like to thank our IEP directors and board members for their high-impact participation on June 12th and Dean Marchese along with our College of Engineering colleagues for accompanying us for this powerful, productive and packed journey – we hope it was as meaningful for you as it was for us and our program!
