Tech Topics - Fall 2008 - (Page 21) Joshua Silver, a fourth-year computer science student, took part in the eightweek Georgia Tech East Asia Program to study the businesses and governments of South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong. “We literally visited low-tech textile and plastic manufacturing sites one day and high-tech semiconductor plants the next,” Silver said. “During our first stop in Seoul, South Korea, we were walking into a museum and several dozen Korean schoolchildren surrounded our group to take pictures with us. I think they thought we were famous.” STUDENT LIFE Ryann Kopacka, a third-year ISyE major and member of the varsity swimming and diving team, spent the summer in Singapore and Beijing taking a history class and two industrial and systems engineering courses, first at the National University of Singapore and then in China. “It was fantastic studying industrial engineering in Singapore as the country is so efficient,” said Kopacka, who took second in the 200-meter backstroke in the Singapore national championship swim meet. “My class at Tsinghua University in China was made up of 29 Georgia Tech students, nine students from the National University of Singapore and 12 local students.” For Joe Mets, a summer spent studying in Gorizia, Italy, provided not just a change of locale — it was also a departure from his usual coursework. The third-year biomedical engineering major participated in Tech’s Italian Film Studies program. “I love my major, but studying film in Italy was a great way to explore a field I would probably never learn about otherwise,” Mets said. “I’ve always had a casual interest in film and photography, and studying film theory helped me learn to use a camera more effectively. Critically analyzing Italian films helped me to look at the world beyond the realm of science that most of my BME classes are focused on.” Drew Hess, a fourth-year mechanical engineering major, participated in a sixweek program, “Energy Tomorrow From an Engineering and Management Perspective,” through the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. “The program was incredible in that during those six weeks, we studied in four different locations around the continent,” Hess said. ued ntin ip co tr Yee’s Masato Kan, a fourth-year mechanical engineering student, spent the summer in Galati, Romania, on an internship through a student-run international organization to learn the culture and develop professional skills. “It is extremely rare to see Asian people in Galati,” Kan said. “So I seemed to collect everyone’s attention at once for a few seconds everywhere I went. Some older people reacted as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.” Tackling problems in the developing world was the focus of third-year environmental engineering major Beth West’s studies at Sirindhorn International Institute of Technology, near Bangkok, Thailand. “In a country where it is not safe to drink tap water and the rivers run brown and black from the pollution of a rapidly industrializing nation, the issue of water quality is not as easily taken for granted as in the U.S.,” she said. The experience helped her be more independent. “It is quite humbling to acknowledge that you have no clue what is happening around you and to become dependent on relative strangers. It certainly taught me a lot about myself.” TechTopics | Fall 2008 21
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