August 29, 2001

NC State College of Engineering Summer Program Opens Door to Venezuela

Many students attend summer school, but few travel to another country to do so.  A group of 70 engineering students from Venezuela did just that — they came to North Carolina for summer school.

The NC State departments of civil and industrial engineering hosted senior engineering students from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello (UCAB) in Caracus, Venezuela.  This international program began last summer with a group of 25 students in industrial engineering; this year 50 industrial engineering plus 20 civil engineering students participated in the three-week course.  NC State faculty involved in the program are Dr. Denis R. Cormier, associate professor of industrial engineering, and Dr. John R. Stone, associate professor of civil engineering.

The students took two- to three-day, subject-specific courses that are followed by field trips.  At the end of the program the students earned three credit hours at their institution.  The civil engineering students learned about transportation issues, Global Information Systems (GIS), environmental engineering and structures, while the industrial engineering students learned how to design, fabricate and assemble tool parts in the industrial engineering department's Learning Factory, which emulates a real-world product development environment.  This facility enables students to perform activities from design through final assembly.

According to Cormier, “The UCAB students do not have any manufacturing facilities on their campus, so these hands-on activities truly represent a new experience for them.  The Learning Factory was developed with funding from Black and Decker, General Motors, the National Science Foundation and others.  It has evolved into one of the top manufacturing facilities in the nation over the past five years.”

The students stayed in Wood Residence Hall on campus.  Professors Jose Ochoa and Vicente Napolitano, who are the UCAB directors of civil engineering and industrial engineering, respectively, escorted the students and worked with the NC State civil engineering and industrial engineering faculty during the three-week course.

According to Stone, the primary goal of the program is to open lines of communication between NC State and the Venezuelan university.  “We appreciate the opportunity to work with such great students,” said Stone.  “We hope to expand the program next summer now that this exchange has been established.”  In addition Stone and Cormier hope that some of the Venezuelan students will be interested in returning for graduate school.  In fact several industrial engineering students who visited last summer have applied for post-baccalaureate engineering programs at NC State.

Student comments and photographs from the course may be viewed at www.cimnet.ncsu.edu/ucab/archives.htm.

-- rudd --

Media Contacts:  Dr. John R. Stone, 919/515-7732, stone@eos.ncsu.edu,Dr. Denis Cormier, 919/515-1549, cormier@eos.ncsu.edu, Linda E. Rudd, 919/515-3848, linda_rudd@ncsu.edu