Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Hot, humid and short on blondes are just a few ways Markie McConkey described her recent trip to China.
McConkey, a senior from Lincoln, Neb., went to China as part of a senior project established through the Self Engineering Leadership Fellows program.
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Kansas students' journey through China
Fourteen engineering students took a trip to China with the assistance of the Self Engineering Leadership Fellows this past summer. The goal was to learn about the innovations in the area of engineering, and bring these back to use in their careers. The trip was highlighted by a stop at the World's Fair in Shanghai.
The SELF program was begun three years ago by former engineering alum Madison “Al” and Lila Self. Program coordinator Lucy McGilley said the Purpose of the SELF program is to find students with a passion or fire in their belly and help them develop skills in engineering as well as skills outside of the discipline.
Fourteen senior level engineers in the school of engineering went on the trip that spanned the week of Aug. 8 through Aug. 17. McConkey said when the students were considering where to go that would enable them to learn the most and give back the most to the University, they decided on the World’s Fair in Shanghai.
“We thought ‘why not shoot for the stars?’” McConkey said.
With this being the first class of seniors to graduate, McGilley told the students that she felt the need for a capstone experience to encompass all pillars of the SELF program, as well as all disciples of engineering.
McGilley said that in going on this trip, the students and she wanted to make sure that they were able to bring back as much as they could to the University and to the donors that believed in and supported their project.
The $31,000 price tag was paid for through donor support and fundraising. One of the sponsors for the trip, Robert Peebler, is an engineering alum who is currently the CEO of Ion Geophysical in Beijing. Students attended a banquet hosted by Peebler’s company while there.
“I really enjoyed not only meeting with these international companies and seeing places like Google Beijing, but I also enjoyed the business dinners and the etiquette,” McConkey said. “It was interesting and gave me a new found appreciation of other cultures.”
While visiting these sights and companies like Black and Veatch and Google Beijing, students kept personal journals and blogged about their experiences at Projectshanghai.net.
McGilley said the trip and the experience only encompassed a small part of what the overall project entails.
Meyer said they are working on several different multimedia exhibits and primarily presentations. They are working on a feature for the University engineering expo and McGilley said they will be making presentations to donors and the Dean’s advisory board, as well as have an exhibit at the high school design competition.
Joey Meyer, a senior from St. Louis, is in charge of the documentaries from the trip.
Meyer said the first presentation is Oct. 23 and other documentaries and multimedia aspects of the project will be visible at ProjectShanghai.net and on Youtube.
“We want to give back to students and anyone that could have a possible interest in engineering and what we are doing to help inspire them to see that we have these really neat career fields and that you can really be a part of this great change that is going to be a part of the world,” McGilley said.
Meyer said in the presentations they are primarily focused on how they can translate what they’ve learned as far as international business goes and really what the expo brought which is engineering topics and innovations.
“As future engineers, it was great to see what new innovations are going on around the world,” McConkey said.
Within the projects, Meyer said he wanted to be able to convey a sense of global opportunity, especially in engineering.
“The engineer’s role goes far beyond just the United States and we’re hoping to bring back that evidence of global opportunity back to the University and say this is what we’ve learned and this is where we’re going,” Meyer said.
— Edited by Tim Dwyer
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