INTERNATIONALENGINEERING

PROGRAM

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International Engineering ProgramUniversity of Rhode Island61 - 67 Upper College RoadKingston, RI 02881

Scholarship Winners Spring 2011DAAD Study Scholarship (10 months): Julia Roder-Hanna ‘13 GIEP/CHE

University Academic Excellence Awards for graduating seniors

Amy Gibson ‘11 GIEP/CHE (CHE) & Sara Manteiga ‘11 FIEP/CHE (French & CHE)

Beatrice S. Demers Fellowship:

Chris Andraka ‘13 CIEP/CHE Kayla Belanger ‘14 FIEP/CHE

Narvan R. Hilliard ‘14 CIEP/MCE Alyssa Zisk ‘15 CIEP/MCE & Math

DAAD Young Ambassador Award: Colleen Grinham ‘12 GIEP/CVE

Judith A. and Robert C. Ayotte Scholarship: Nicole Bonvouloir ‘13 FIEP/MCE

William F. and Pauline T. Silvia Scholarship: Luis Gonzalez ‘13 SIEP/CVE

Sharon Wallace Memorial Scholarship: Emily Serman ‘14 GIEP/MCE

spring/summer 2011 Volume 13 Issue 3

Rebecca Boduch ’10 GIEP is a Controls Engineer working on process automation at Organogenesis Inc., a regenerative medicine company in Canton, MA.

Josh Clements ’02 GIEP is a Senior As-sociate in Manufacturing at Amgen.

Jonathan Grillot ’09 GIEP/ISE graduated with a Master of Engineering (Process En-gineering and Production Management) from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Hannover He just finished his master thesis titled “Energy Balance of a Four Million Tire Production Facility” at Continental in Hannover. Upon comple-tion of his thesis he also became a full-time Engineer in the department of stock preparation. The position is highly techni-cal and also requires traveling to various international plants.

Ana Maria Hagan ’05 SIEP/CVE has been awarded a 10-month Fulbright re-search grant for Mongolia on “Environ-mental determinants for mercury remedia-tion from small-scale gold and coal mining in Mongolia”. Her goals include creating outcomes that will have a meaningful im-pact both in Mongolia and within the sci-entific community of environmental engi-neering for water treatment.

Zachary Karas ‘08 GIEP is pursuing an MBA at Boston College

Chris Kreuter ’04 GIEP/OCE is a Re-gional Account Manager for Bombardier Transportation and he has also started a gaming company, Masquerade Games, LLC.

Tobias Lührig ‘99 (TUBS alum & advisory board member) announces the birth of his son Carl Arthur on May 1, 2011 in Berlin.

Alex Pentagov IBP is a Manager, Global HR Tools & Processes at Sika AG

Sareh Rajaee ’06 GIEP graduated in May with a Masters in Public Health from Har-vard and an M.D. from Brown. She begins her residency in the Vascular Surgery pro-gram at Yale Univeristy in June.

Mike Schroff ’00 GIEP works for business intelligence company Analytics8.

Alumni Updates

Dear friends of the IEP,

I am eager to share several exciting de-velopments with you which made this past spring semester an extraordinary one. On June 3rd in Vancouver, at the annual convention of the Association of International Educators (NAFSA), 3 out of 66 university applicants across the country were awarded the Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award for an innovative international program on campus. As a Spotlight Award recipient, URI was se-lected for the successful internationaliza-tion of its engineering curriculum, that is, for the IEP.

Shortly after, at our annual board meeting on June 17, the IEP directors reported a 9.4 % increase in enrollment numbers, with the Spanish IEP showing the fastest growth trajectory.

Lastly, the R.I. Board of Governors for Higher Education, chaired by URI alum Lorne Adrain, unanimously approved the major in Chinese. Thus the seed which had been planted four years ago by company demand and a student petition to introduce Chinese on campus, then nurtured by John Grandin’s fundraising

success, and finally skillfully maneuvered through 11 rounds of committees and the faculty senate by Chinese Flagship direc-tor Wayne He, DOL chair Norbert Hedd-erich, and Dean of A&S Winnie Brownell, has finally grown into a full-fledged pro-gram. The first generation of CIEP stu-dents will graduate with a B.S. in an en-gineering field and a B.A. in Chinese in May 2012.

This summer a team led by Winnie Brownell and Chinese Flagship Coordi-nator Erin Papa, started planning a R.I. “RhodeMap for the Languages”. This ini-tiative will collect recommendations for implementing policies fostering foreign language education in our state. A State Language Summit is planned for October 31st at the Providence Westin. It will bring

together leaders from the political, cor-porate, defense, health, and educational arenas addressing their sectors’ language needs and advocating for improved legis-lation.

IEP/TU-BS alumni in Germany --- please save the date for our second German alumni meeting in Braunschweig, on May 5th 2012, featuring special guest President David Dooley. All alumni -- please stay in touch and make sure to send your up-dat-ed email addresses to IEP coordinator Ka-tie Zimmerman at zimmermank@uri.edu.

Enjoy the rest of the summer!

~Sigrid Berka

Director’s Notes URI Wins Award for Internationalizing the Campus

Alumni chapter in Germany

Dr. Sigrid Berka, Executive Director

While traveling in Germany this May, John and Carol Grandin took the opportunity to meet with alumni in both Braunschweig (May 21) and Munich (May 28). These events brought together groups of former Braunschweig students who completed either the engineering MS or the MBA at URI and current GIEPers, who are now pursuing their careers in Europe. Approxi-mately 25 persons attended each event. It is rewarding to experience the common bond these former students share with URI and each other, and their enthusiasm about building a permanent URI alumni chapter in Germany.

John was thrilled to meet students he had not seen in several years, as well as recent grads who had landed jobs in Germany associated with some of the world’s most innovative technologies. Loren Eckardt ‘09, for example, is laying cable to wind farms in the North Sea; Dan Fischer ‘02 is an MRI product manager for Siemens Medical Solutions; Jesse Schneider ‘94 is a key player on BMW’s fuel cell technol-ogy team; Mike Raiche ‘08 is advancing in his work at MTU, one of Germany’s lead-ing aerospace companies.

With over 500 grads who have participat-ed in the URI/Braunschweig exchange, it is a major effort to keep up with former students. But it is rewarding to do so, and well worth the effort!

Dan Fischer ’02, John Grandin,and Tobias Lührig ‘99

URI received the Senator Paul Simon NAFSA Spotlight Award for the inter-nationalization of its engineering curriculum through the IEP. Provost Don Dehayes travelled to Vancouver, BC to accept the award on June 3, 2011.(L-R) Erin Papa ‘01; Sigrid Berka; Provost DeHayes

Notes from Abroad

Armed with dual degrees the class of 2011 enters the global workplace!

Internship Placements 2011

Congratulations IEP Class of 2011

France

Sarah Hanselman Total, Paris (Fall ’10)Caitlin Hurley Rhodia, ParisRaena Morley Toray Plastics, Lyon

Germany

Kyle Chase ZF, FriedrichshafenKelly Cook (dual masters) Siemens, Munich Dan Danckert Bosch, StuttgartNicholas Daniello VW, WolfsburgAnthony DiGulio IAV, Gifhorn Michael Dillman VW, WolfsburgThomas Duarte Salzgitter AG, Salzgitter Payam Fahr BMW, MunichJohnathan Farnsworth Kolbenschmidt Pierburg, NeussWilliam Garcia Hochtief, HamburgRhys Goff Hilti, KauferingColleen Grinham Bayer, LeverkusenKareem Hartl (IBP) ZF, PassauJames Isherwood DB, Minden (Fall `10)Brian Kintz IAV, GifhornAdmir Monteiro ZF, FriedrichshafenJason Miller (dual masters) Conti, Regensburg Maricarmen Neris (IBP) DB, BerlinNick Putnam BMW, MunichGreg Turner IAV, GifhornDonna Salamey Draeger Medical, LübeckWilliam Seites Rundlett Hochtief, BonnYida Yang Conti, Regensburg

Spain

Evan Dowell Air Nostrum, ValenciaMax Kramers King Marine, ValenciaCaity Maleck Ibaia Energía, IbarraErica Manganelli (IBP) General Motors, ZaragozaMici Chase Thermochemical Processes Research Group, ZaragozaCourtney Dulude Communication Technologies Research Group, Zaragoza

David Caouette CVE & German

Wendy Costa Nutrition & German

Patrica Coutts CHE & German

Andrew DaSilva CVE & German

Drew Davis MCE & German

Shawn Drew MCE & German

Sara Eldridge CHE & German

Amy Gibson CHE & German

JT Isherwood Jr. ISE & German

Jim Leuzarder MCE & German

Corey Marchetti CS & German

Manuel Muller MCE & German

Sotharom Muth MCE & German

Steven Sihavong MCE & German

Katherine Tivin CVE & German

Benjamin Adams CHE & French

David Fennessey CMP & French

Adam Hanks CHE & French

Sarah Hanselman CHE & French

Sara Manteiga CHE & French

Ryan Andrews BME & Spanish

Jennifer Bline OCE & Spanish

Eric Collette CVE & Spanish

Nathan Kando ELE & Spanish

Grace Lynch BME & Spanish

Samuel Matus CHE & Spanish

Sarah Schlatter BME & Spanish

Marc Tetreault MCE & Spanish

Rachael Browning CHE & Chinese minor

Joe Hackman CMP & Chinese minor

Ben Adams, Catalyst Engineer at Süd-Chemie, Needham MA

Rachael Browning, Nestlé-Purina

David Caouette, Geotechnical Engineer at PARE Corporation, Foxboro, MA

Eric Collette, Masters program in Petro-leum Engineering at Texas A & M

Patrica Coutts, Praxair Management Pro-gram, Houston, TX

Shawn Drew, Engineering and Opera-tions Management Associate at BMW Manufacturing, Greenville, SC

Sara Eldridge, Process Engineer at Ex-emplar Pharmaceuticals/Laboratories

David Fennessey, Software Engineer at CSNstores.com, Boston, MA

Amy Gibson, Millennium, Cambridge, MA

Joe Hackman, Software Engineer at Intel

Sarah Hanselman, Customer Support Consultant at Idexx Laboratories in Port-land, ME

JT Isherwood Jr., Associate Engineer at the Brain Tank, Providence, RI

Nathan Kando, Electric Boat in Groton

Jim Leuzarder, Electric Boat, Groton

Grace Lynch, Intern at Abbott Bioresearch Center, Boston

Sara Manteiga, Doctoral program in Chemical & Biological Engineering at Tufts

Corey Marchetti, Associate Software En-gineer at CA Techonologies, Framingham, MA

Samuel Matus, Product Engineer at Strain Mesurement Devices, Hartford, CT

Manuel Muller, Dual masters at URI/TUBS

Sotharom Muth, MTU, CT

Sarah Schlatter, Application Sales Engi-neer at The Lee Company in CT

Marc Tetreault, Intern at the RI Nuclear Science Center, Narragansett, RI

Katherine Tivin, Dual masters at URI/TUBS

The Next Step....

We caught up with Raena Morley ‘12 FIEP/CHE midway through her internship with Toray Films in Lyon, France.

Tell us about your internship?

I’m with Toray Films Europe, right outside of Lyon (in St-Maurice-de-Beynost). I’m working in the R&D department to help evaluate and develop new transparent films for food pack-aging. My daily routine has changed as the project has proceeded and evolved. A typical day offers a good variety of tasks. A portion of it is spent at my desk, organizing and ana-lyzing data, doing bibliographical research, or working on my report. The rest of the time is spent in a lab, either in the R&D department or elsewhere, depending on which equipment is needed. Much of my work has focused on measuring barrier properties of experimental films against water vapor and oxygen. I’ve had the opportunity to conduct many other evaluations, using methods such as optical microscopy, infrared spectrometry, and refra-tometry, just to name a few.

My advisor allows and encourages me to design my own experiments and come up with my own hypotheses. Occasionally it can seem like feeling around blindly in the dark, but I guess that’s what R&D is! Aside from my internship project, I’ve also been able to help out accomplishing small tasks for other projects and analysis requests. Because of this, I’ve been able to meet employees from different departments and positions. I have a greater perception of the day-to-day activi-ties across the company, from research and development up to production and post-treat-ment.

How has your experience with Toray in France been different than or similar to interning in the U.S.?

Actually, this isn’t my first internship with Toray! The summer before I left for France, I completed an internship at their Quonset loca-tion. Despite being in France, I’m not working exclusively with “French” engineers. My intern-ship advisor is originally from Romania, and there is another employee in the department from England. It being a Japanese company, there are also a lot of Japanese employees. That being said, the engineers here don’t seem to differ much from those I worked with in the States on a professional level. However, the work-day itself is structured differently. It seems that those who are able to choose their hours arrive later and then leave later.

The “pause café” is a ritual repeated through-out the day. The “pause déjeuner” often lasts an hour or more, and clears out all of the of-fices. Vacation time is serious business too. What I’m still adjusting to is the need to shake hands or “faire la bise” [French greeting of kissing on each cheek] with everyone I en-counter every day. The “règles de politesse” can be tricky... Who to “tutoyer” and who to “vouvoyer”? Who will serve everyone water from the carafe at the lunch table? To whom have I already said “bonjour” today? (You are required a daily quota of one bonjour to each person. A repetition means you weren’t pay-ing attention when you greeted them the first time, and will be replied with a curt “Oh, mais on s’est vu déjà.”) Another difference: special ventilated rooms set aside in each building for “les fumeurs.”

How well prepared were you to intern for a company in French?

I feel as if I was well prepared, thanks to my semester spent at Compiègne. Of course, there’s plenty of technical vocabulary that you don’t come across on a regular basis, so that was a little bit difficult at first. I was surprised and pleased to be told that I speak well. Nowa-days that’s the highest of compliments for me!

What engineering skills have you learned on the job?

As far as technical skills go, I’ve learned to use a lot of laboratory equipment that I’ve never encountered before, as well as the theory be-hind it. Not to mention the importance of keep-ing a decently detailed lab notebook. As with my first internship, I’ve also learned a lot about the research process and the day-to-day hap-penings of a production plant. There’s so much to take from an internship setting that can’t be achieved in the classroom!

(left) Payam Fahr ‘12 GIEP/MCE with his internship supervisor Jörg Weidinger from BMW. They are in front of the Team Bock Sport MINI Challenge Racecar at the 24hr Race in Nürburgring, Germany. Check out Payam’s blog for more photos and to read about his experience interning in the department for the Function-al Integration of Driving Dynam-ics-BMW/Mini.

h t tp : / /payam-deutsch land.blogspot.com