JI’s 2012 UM Winter Program took place from January 25 through February 10, 2012. Ten students participated in the program, led by Ms. Viva Du, JI’s International Program Coordinator.
The group arrived at Chicago after a long flight on January 25. The next day, after touring Millennium Park，Navy Pier, and ice-covered Michigan Lake, the students traveled to Ann Arbor.
On January 27, they visited the North Campus of University of Michigan, where representatives from the School of Engineering gave them a briefing about UM and CoE(College of Engineering). Prof. James Holloway, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education of the College of Engineering and a member of JI’s APG also met with the students. In the afternoon, students took the campus bus to the Central Campus and toured the beautiful campus characterized by classical and Gothic architecture. In the evening, they went to UM’s Arena to watch a women’s gymnastics competition between UM and University of Illinois.
On January 29, students visited UM’s Museum of Arts (UMMA) which is one of the largest university art museum in the USA and boasts nearly 19,000 objects of arts collected over the last 150 years that span cultures, eras, and media, including Pablo Picasso’s and Claude Monet’s works.
In the morning of January 30, the students were given a presentation on the opportunity of graduate study at the School of Engineering. In the afternoon, they visited the Wu Manufacturing Lab where Dean Ni is the director but on that day was out of town in Davos, Switzerland for the annual meeting of World Economic Forum. Later the students toured the UM’s football stadium. Nicknamed “The Big House,” Michigan Stadium is the largest stadium in the USA and the third in the world, with a capacity of almost 110,000 people.
On January 31, JI students shadowed their buddies and experienced a day as a student of CoE in UM. They had breakfast with their buddies and then followed them to attend classes, have lunch, and do other activities throughout the day. One JI student followed his buddy to attend a Chinese class!
On February 1, students visited Detroit Institute of Arts which has one of the largest, most significant art collections in the United States, with more than 100 galleries containing 65,000 artworks from around the world. The museum architecture is highly regarded and the building is listed in the National Registry of Historical Places.
On the eve of departure, the students watched a Men’s basketball game between UM and University of Indiana. UM’s landslide victory left a memorable souvenir for JI students’ visit to the university.
On February 2, students left for University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland, where Ms. Jane gave an overview of the university and A. James Clark School of Engineering. JI students gave a presentation on exchange program and attended the campus tour. Recently, JI and University of Maryland have worked out some plans to have student exchange and research collaboration. The following day, there was a seminar on the application for admission to the graduate school of engineering and the ways of finding financial aids. Then the students toured the laboratories.
Over the weekend, students went to Washington D.C. Besides taking pictures of the White House, they visited Lincoln Memorial, Capitol Hill, and National Space Museum. They also went to tour the Harbor of Baltimore and visited the National Aquarium.
On February 8, the group arrived at their last stop, Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. They were received by the staff in the international students’ office. Professor G. Paul Neitzel, Assoc. Chair of Graduate Studies, George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering， and Professor Bonnie Ferri, Assoc. Chair of Graduate Studies, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering， met with the students and gave introductions.
On February 9, students toured Atlanta, visiting Martin Luther King Jr. Nationa Historic Site, World of Coca Cola, and Atlanta Zoo. The sunset at CNN and Phipps Plaza concluded the 17- day US Winter Program.
Among the participants, sophomore Song Guo who was planning to attend the graduate school in UM says this trip turned out to be as she had expected and let her get to know UM earlier. She was very impressed by the state-of-the-art facilities of the university. Meng Cheng, an ECE major, expressed her interest in the circuit experiment course in University of Maryland; there are only six or seven students in each lab class. Freshman Shiyong Hu was amazed by how important sports are in American universities; they have a great variety of sports activities. Freshman Jie Wang was impressed by the 200-year-old architecture of the UM campus. Tianxian Xu, a ME major and Secretary of the JI Student Union, was inspired by the UM branding and is thinking of organizing a JI T shirt design competition.
US Winter Program is a three-week learning and cultural exchange program that helps JI students explore the School of Engineering at University of Michigan and helps connect JI students with their peers in UM. The visits to University of Maryland and Georgia Tech serve as scouting trips for those who are interested in these two universities. The program is open to any JI students who want to know about American university life as well as the facilities and offerings of UM. During the visit there, students will have the opportunities to tour the surrounding areas and experience American culture and daily life.
If you are interested in finding out more about this trip or next trip in Janurary 2013, please contact Viva Du at viva.du@sjtu.edu.cn.
