INTERNATIONALENGINEERING

PROGRAM

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

Spring/Summer 2012 Volume 14 Issue 3

Colleen Black ‘10 FIEP/CHE is an In-stallation Analysis Engineer at Technip in Houston, TX. In the fall, she will be work-ing towards an MS in Civil Engineering with a concentration in Ocean & Coastal studies at Oregon State University.

Rachael Browning ‘11 CIEP/CHE fin-ished her Trainee Program at Nestlé Pu-rina and is now an Associate Engineer.

Kelly Cook ‘11 dual masters URI/TU-BS is with Siemens AG, Munich.

Tricia Coutts ‘11 GIEP/CHE finished the trainee program with Praxair Inc and will be headed to Detroit as a Plant Engineer at the Praxair facility in Ecorse, MI.

Drew Davis ‘11 GIEP/MCE is an engi-neer with Electric Boat in New London, CT.

Matthew Dunham ‘09 GIEP/MCE is a Nuclear Engineer at the Portsmouth Na-val Shipyard in New Hampshire for the Department of Defense.

Ana Catalina Franco ‘06 GIEP/MCE works at Siemens Industry as a Product Manager in Snellville, GA.

Jason Frost ‘00 GIEP/ISE has been working for Bosch in South Carolina since 2005 and will relocate to Bosch in Ans-bach, Germany in September.

Dear friends,

This Spring, the IEP started celebrat-ing its 25th anniversary with a ten day tour to Braunschweig, Berlin and Paris. TU Braunschweig offered a warm wel-come featuring our 2nd German alumni meeting on May 5, a wonderful outing to near-by Riddagshausen cloister and lake, and an interdisciplinary bio-phar-maceutical engineering forum on May 7. Faculty from both institutions explored future collaboration; Presidents Dooley and Hesselbach met for the first time (and vouched to meet again in Kingston), signed an adapted dual master’s agree-ment, and pointed out the depth and val-ue of our long-term partnership. Several TUBS and IEP alumni representatives underscored the benefits the exchange has had on their professional and per-sonal life.

A train ride later in Berlin on May 8th, we kicked off a new collaboration agreement with Deutsche Bahn overlooking Berlin from the DB tower terrace, followed by a discussion of research synergies and cooperation on the 23rd floor of the Total

company headquarters in Paris on May 9. The evening saw us being carried away by “bateau mouche” on the Seine river, moving from the professional to the ro-mantic side of this magnificent city. In the morning, the Université de Technologie de Compiègne hosted our IEP board meeting and introduced us to culinary delights as well as to its ambitious academic portfolio. With its emphasis on applied and global learning, as well as industry partnerships, UTC is an excellent match for URI and the IEP!

Back in Kingston, the IEP helped the Chinese Flagship Program launch the Roadmap to Language Excellence for the State of Rhode Island at the State House on June 8. Its mission is that by 2030, the majority of Rhode Island high school

graduates will be proficient in English and at least one other language. In the pres-ence of Senator Jack Reed, Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, Deborah Gist, two of our IEP alums, Yldan-ya Carrasco (SIEP `03) and Scott Carlson (GIEP `10) and IEP board member Mike Byrnes, showcased the impact the IEP and language acquisition have had on their im-pressive careers.

On a more somber note, we are saying goodbye to Katie Zimmerman, our compe-tent coordinator, who is fortunate enough to move on to a Ph.D. program in French at Boston University. While we are sad to see her go, it is fully in IEP style! Many thanks, and our best for your promising future from all of us in the IEP, Katie!

Director’s Notes

Beatrice S. DemersFellowship Recipients

Dr. Sigrid Berka, Executive Director

13 Demers fellows were selected this year from a pool of 89 applicants. The individual awards range from $2,500 to $10,000. 6 of the 13 are IEP students going abroad in 2012-2013.

John Adley ‘14 SIEP/CHE to Zaragoza, Spain.

Maria Briones ‘14 SIEP/CVE to Cantabria, Spain.

William Machado ‘14 GIEP/MCE to Braun-schweig, Germany

David Powers, ‘14 GIEP/MCE to Braunsch-weig, Germany

Farid Topchiev ‘14 GIEP/CHE to Braunsch-weig, Germany

Alumni, faculty, administrators, family and friends gathered at TU-Braunschweig to celebrate the URI/TU-BS partnership. Left to right: Dean Winnie Brownell, Andrew Marchesseault ‘06 GIEP/MCE, ‘07 M.S./Dipl.-Ing and ‘12 Doktor der Ingenieurwissenschaften, Andrea Kurkowski, and IEP Director Emeritus John Grandin.

Alumni UpdatesMichael Godfrin ‘08 GIEP/MCE will start a Ph.D. program in Biomedical Engineering at Brown University in the fall.

Kaylen Haley ‘04 GIEP/BME is a Se-nior Development Engineer with Covi-dien in Boulder, CO.

Sarah (Gabryluk) Koenig ‘07 FIEP/ISE is with United Technologies Corpo-ration in North Carolina.

Joe LiVolsi ‘10 GIEP/MCE works at NUWC in Newport, RI.

Andrew Marchesseault ‘06 GIEP/MCE, ‘07 M.S./Dipl.-Ing completed his Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering at TU Braunschweig.

Shawn Martin ‘05 GIEP/ELE is a Se-nior Engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat in Groton, CT.

Tonya McBride ‘99 GIEP/CHE is working from RI as a Business Devel-opment Manager with PolyOne Corpo-ration.

Jason Miller ‘10 GIEP/MCE complet-ed his dual master’s degree URI/TU-BS in April 2012.

Graeme O’Connell ‘09 CIEP/BME completed his M.S. in Biomedical Engi-neering at Duke University. He works for Civatech Oncology in Durham, NC.

Two generations of GIEPers: Erik Anderson ‘02 & ‘09, a GIEP grad (left) and a dual-masters URI/TUBs grad, has been working with IAV since 2009. Currently Nick Beretta ‘13 BME (center) and Matt Hooks ‘13 CPE (right) are interning in his department, On Board Diagnostics.

Celebrating 25 Years of International Collaboration

Meghan (Bellows) Peterson ‘06 GIEP/CHE completed her Ph.D. at Princeton Uni-versity and is now a Systems Engineer with Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA.

Steven Sihavong ‘11 GIEP/MCE is a Mag-netics Project Engineer at KMC/Waukesha Bearings in West Greenwich, RI.

Meghan Soens ‘05 SIEP/BME/ELE com-pleted her MBA from Northwestern Univer-sity in 2010 and works as a Senior Global Product Manager for Boston Scientific En-doscopy.

Taylor Spalt ‘08 SIEP/MCE has a Co-Op with NASA Langley Research Center while he finishes up his dissertation at Virginia Tech.

Ryan Tanner ‘06 SIEP/MCE is in his sec-ond year of Ph.D. studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder majoring in Architec-tural Engineering with a focus on building controls.

Andrew Wild ‘09 SIEP/MCE is a Project Engineer for New England Ropes in Fall River, MA.

2012 Alumni Event in Braunschweig

FrenchCaitlin Hurley Chem. Eng. Graduate studies at the Université de Toulouse, France.Raena Morley Chem. Eng Graduate studies at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität-Erlangen-Nürnberg.

GermanKyle Chase Mech. Eng. Brandon Corey Mech. Eng. Tüv Süd, Boston, MA.Daniel Danckert Chem./Ocean Eng.Nicholas Daniello Mech. Eng.Anthony DiGiulio Mech. Eng.Michael Dillman Mech. Eng.Thomas Duarte Chem. Eng. Tiffany and Co. in Providence, RI.Payam Fahr Mech. Eng. URI Masters Program in Mechanical Engineering.Shawn Fineout Mech. Eng. Hexagon Metrology in North Kingstown, RI.William Garcia Civil Eng.Rhys Goff Mech. Eng.Colleen Grinham Civil Eng. Dual Degree Masters Program at URI/TU-BS in Civil Engineering.Brian Kintz Comp. Eng. IAV in Gifhorn, Germany.Admir Monteiro Elec. Eng. IAV in Gifhorn, Germany.Nicholas Putnam Mech. Eng. Trainee Program with ZF in Friedrichshafen, Germany.William Seites-Rundlett Civil Eng. Electric Boat in Groton, CT.Gregory Turner Mech. Eng. Dual Degree Masters Program URI/TU-BS in Mechanical Engineering.Mason Wilson IV Biomed./Elec. Eng. Mahr Federal Inc. in Providence, RI.Yida Yang Elec. Eng. Masters in Electrical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

SpanishMici Chase Chem. Eng. Graduate studies in Physiology at Case Western Reserve University, OH.Evan Dowell Indus. & Sys. Eng.Courtney Dulude Biomed. Eng. International Sales Engineering at Hipotronics in Brewster, NY.Max Kramers Mech. Eng.Caitlyn Maleck Mech. Eng. Clever Devices on Long Island, NY.Chelsae Meier Biomed. Eng. Haemonics in Braintree and Stoughton, MA.Marc Tetreault Mech. Eng. URI Masters program in Mechanical Engineering.

Dual Degree Masters URI/TU-BSKelly Cook Mech./Indus. & Sys. Eng. Siemens AG, MunichJason Miller Mechanical Engineering

Alumni from URI and TU-Braunschweig joined administrators, faculty, staff, and current students in Braunschweig, Ger-many to celebrate over seventeen years of collaboration. With about 100 attend-ees, the event was a resounding suc-cess. It was a fitting kick-off to the 25th anniversary of the IEP. Honored guests at the event included, URI President David Dooley, TU-BS President Jürgen Hessel-bach, Dean Winnie Brownell (CAS), Dean Wright (COE), and Dean Jordan (College of Pharmacy).

Alumni were happy to catch up with the two innovators who started the relation-ship, IEP Director Emeritus John Grandin and retired head of the TU-BS Sprachen-zentrum, Dr. Peter Nübold.

1995 was the first year that Dr. Grandin began sending URI students to TU-Braun-schweig after starting the IEP in 1987, and some of the very first students exchanged attended the event. The celebration was also an opportunitiy for recent graduates and GIEPers currently in Germany to net-work with alumni from as early as 1991.

President David Dooley (URI) and Presi-dent Jürgen Hesselbach (TU-BS) shared greetings and reflections on the URI-TU-BS partnership as well as on the future of engineering worldwide. Both presidents emphasized the importance of relation-ships in developing and maintaining inter-national partnerships.

Dr. Grandin moderated the Alumni Panel that represented the past, present, and future of the IEP and the URI/TU-BS part-nership. Alumni, Peter Alberg, as seen to the right, Tobias Lührig, Kim Neumann, and Peter Wiedenhoff each spoke of the

impact that the URI/TU-BS dual degree program or the IEP has had on their life and career. Julia Roder-Hanna ‘13, cur-rently interning at Bayer, shared her ex-periences on living, learning, and working in Germany. Their insightful testimonies reiterate the importance, both professional and personal, that have resulted from this revolutionary university partnership.

The event was also sponsored by Office of Alumni Affairs and the College of Engi-neering. Thank you to Dr. Astrid Sebastian and Dr. Ute Kopka at the TU-BS Interna-tional Office for all of their help organizing the alumni event and subsequent pro-grams in Braunschweig.

This year’s IEP Advisory Board meeting gave board members a true taste of a year abroad in France with the IEP. The meeting spanned two days, beginning with a visit to Total, the French energy giant, and IEP part-ner company. The second day was spent at the Université de Technologie de Com-piègne (UTC). Known for its innovative in-terdisciplinary approach to engineering and technology, the IEP advisory board got to

see firsthand why UTC is a great match as the IEP’s French partner university. Touch-ing on both the study abroad and internship pieces of the IEP experience, the meeting reinforced already strong relationships and forged new ones.

Over the past 4 years, 6 French IEPers have interned at Total in France. Currently Nicole Bonvouloir ‘13 MCE is interning in Paris with Paulstra/Hutchinson, a Total company. She presented the board with a glimpse of her responsibilities and her perspective on liv-ing and working in France. Nicole presented during the board’s visit at the Total tower in La Défense. An impressive presentation at an impressive location, followed by a cruise on the Seine.

At UTC on the second day, one of the high-lights of the board meeting was a presen-tation by Martha Ziolkowski ‘10 FIEP/OCE. Upon first arriving at URI, she was not going to pursue engineering but changed her mind at the urging of her father. She interned with Geocéan, part of Total Oil and Gas in spring 2010 in Cassis, France. After graduation she returned to France and continued to work for Geocean. She is now with Subsea 7 in Paris working on underwater pipelines.

From her initial hesitancy to major in engi-neering, to her successful career as a pipe-line design engineer in France, her story ex-emplifies the value of the IEP.

Advisory Board Meeting

The IEP extends many thanks to UTC and Cornelia Marin, director for International Relations, and her team for such a warm welcome to us! Thank you to all of the advisory board members who made the trip!

UTC President Alain Storck (left) and President Dooley.

The Next Step for the 2012 Graduates!

IEP Makes Localand National Press

Check out the May 18 Chronicle of Higher Education for an in-depth account on how “An unusual marriage between engineering and languages lures students.” And please join us for the 15th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education November 1-3rd in Newport, with keynotes from William Colglazier, Science & Technology Advisor to the Secretary of State, Shivan Subramaniam, CEO of FM Global, and Jens Hanefeld, Minister and Chief of Mission, German Embassy, Washington. Send Sigrid an email, sberka@uri.edu, if you would like to be featured on the alumni panel!

Friederike Vollenberg ‘09 dual M.S. URI/TU-BS now works for DB and Frank Overtheil ‘09 M.S./ISE.

Paul Pabon ‘13 GIEP/ELE with Dr. Grandin. Christian Häfner ‘03 M.S./CVE, Sandra Kurz, Michael Tim-mons ‘01 GIEP/MCE, Lisa Fagnant Dietrich ‘91 GIEP/ISE and Michael Lux ‘04 M.S./ELE.

Nick Daniello and Courtney Dulude.

Colleen Grinham, Nick Putnam and Brian Kintz.

IEP Advisory Board Members at Université de Technologie de Compiègne.