{"id":136968,"date":"2018-04-24T14:50:31","date_gmt":"2018-04-24T18:50:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=136968"},"modified":"2018-04-24T15:07:33","modified_gmt":"2018-04-24T19:07:33","slug":"uconn-launches-international-engineering-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2018\/04\/uconn-launches-international-engineering-program\/","title":{"rendered":"CLAS, Engineering Launch International Engineering Program"},"content":{"rendered":"

A partnership between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences\u2019 Department of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages and the School of Engineering has culminated in the launch of UConn\u2019s new\u00a0International Engineering Program<\/a>. This series of dual-degree programs give undergraduates pursuing engineering careers the chance to go abroad to pursue international internships in a setting of total cultural immersion.<\/p>\n

The program comprises four five-year programs that give students the ability to earn a BA in Chinese, French, German, or Spanish, and a BS in an engineering discipline.<\/p>\n

By adding an entire year abroad and total immersion in a foreign language and culture, the program graduates young engineers with hands-on global experience who are prepared for rewarding careers in a diverse array of fields around the world, says program co-director and Associate Professor of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages Jennifer Terni.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really is a very organic program that prepares students at the highest levels professionally, and at the same time gives them a real-world stake in mastering another language and culture,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Terni co-directs the International Engineering Program with Brian Schwarz, director of experiential engineering education initiatives in the School of Engineering.<\/p>\n

The initiative builds on the 25 years of\u00a0success of the Eurotech program<\/a>, which places UConn undergraduates at universities and internships in Baden-W\u00fcrttemberg, Germany.<\/p>\n

\"Outdoor
Outdoor cafes in Place Saint-Georges, Toulouse, France. (Photo courtesy Jennifer Terni)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The newest program, called Technopole France, launched this year as an exchange with the University of Toulouse, France. The home of aerospace manufacturing giant Airbus, Toulouse produces more engineers than anywhere else in France, and is akin in its concentration of researchers, universities, and technologies to a Silicon Valley of Europe, says Terni. The program includes two internship positions at Airbus each year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re looking here at the creation of business exchanges \u2013 this is how UConn is creating economic value for the state and the nation,\u201d says Terni. \u201cWe\u2019ve gone from having four relatively small niche programs into one large International Engineering Program that we are building into a destination program for UConn.\u201d<\/p>\n

A delegation of administrators and researchers from the University of Toulouse visited UConn in April, meeting with CLAS Dean Davita Silfen Glasberg and engineering Dean Kazem Kazerounian, along with Provost Craig Kennedy and other University leaders. The group also met with students in the Eurotech program to learn how it has shaped their college experience.<\/p>\n

Liam Connelly \u201921 (CLAS, ENG), one of the first participants in Technopole France, says he was interested in the program from early in his first year.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always wanted to be an engineer, and I also want to be able to travel and be an asset to a company,\u201d he says. \u201cToulouse is situated really well \u2013 it\u2019s a city full of young people, and a center for engineering startups. It\u2019s a goal I can set for myself, to expand my worldview.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Engineering Spanish Program, or ESP, sends its 40 students to Valencia, Spain, and emphasizes biological engineering disciplines, such as biomechanics and biomedical engineering. Students can begin their studies at Comillas Pontificia University in Madrid during their second year, and visit the Polytechnic University of Valencia.<\/p>\n

\u201cValencia is a leader in cutting-edge biomedical research, like concussions from sports, and designing headgear for soccer players,\u201d notes Schwarz.<\/p>\n

The newly-established AsiaTech program gives students the chance to study in Shanghai, China, and emphasizes mechanical, materials, electrical, and chemical engineering, and computer science. The study of upper-level Chinese makes this a rigorous program, says Terni, which in itself makes students better engineers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese students are learning to think in another language,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen you marry the cultural experience with engineering training, students become better engineers because they learn to think outside the box on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terni is capitalizing on the literatures, cultures, and languages department\u2019s many relationships with Connecticut high schools to get the word out so students can \u201cstart on day one of their college experience,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Students shouldn\u2019t be dissuaded if they\u2019ve never taken the language, she also notes. Connelly, who studied Spanish in high school, took his first French class at UConn, and is on track to have a command of the language before he travels to Toulouse between his junior and senior years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bigger than just getting two degrees,\u201d says Connelly. \u201cIt\u2019s part of something much bigger that expands your worldview completely.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The dual-degree tracks combine CLAS programs in French, Spanish, Chinese, or German language and culture with an engineering field to create a \u201cdestination program\u201d for UConn. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":136971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866,2226],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1860],"class_list":["post-136968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr","category-clas"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-12 23:55:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136968","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/136971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136968"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=136968"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=136968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}