Engineering students travel to Taiwan for hands-on research internship

8:48 a.m., Sept. 29, 2014--University of Delaware junior Tim D’Agostino, an environmental engineering major, was among five engineering students who traveled to Taiwan this summer to participate in an international research internship.

Coordinated by the College of Engineering, the 2014 Internship Program for International Students was held at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU) in Taichung, Taiwan. Other participating UD students included Huayu Fu, Zhengming Li, Adam Livingston and Minghan Xian.

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The two-week summer internship is part of a collaborative research exchange program between NCHU and UD’s College of Engineering aimed at enhancing the educational collaboration and student exchange between the universities. Students involved in the program explored state-of-the-art engineering technologies and performed research with NCHU professors, among other things. 

Working under the guidance of Dong-Sin Shih, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at NCHU, D’Agostino studied hydrology with peer exchange students from China, Japan and several host students. The group created one- and two-dimensional hydrologic models, studied wave phenomena and fluid flow, and talked with and toured the labs of various researchers in the field. 

“One day we teamed up with civil engineering students who taught us how to use software tools to study the forces within bridge structures. We used software to design our own bridges, and even had the opportunity to build a prototype of the design and stress test it in the laboratory,” explained D’Agostino.

At the conclusion of the program, each team presented their research results to their peers and NCHU faculty and administrators.

“The NCHU and UD partnership is a wonderful example of an international collaboration which provides critical global experiential learning opportunities for our students,” said Michael Vaughan, associate dean for academic affairs in the College of Engineering. 

“A contemporary engineering education must prepare students to explore and discover how they can contribute solutions to the world’s grand challenges,” he said, adding, “Global opportunities of this kind represent an important part of this educational process.”

But D’Agostino’s international experience in Taiwan went much farther than the classroom. While abroad, D’Agostino and the other students explored the city and experienced the rich culture by hiking at Sun Moon Lake, sampling food in a street market and visiting the 921 Earthquake Museum, a museum built at the site of a school destroyed in the Chi-Chi Earthquake.

“Seeing firsthand the damage caused by the earthquake was a unique experience and it was fascinating learning more about the area during our tour,” D’Agostino said. 

His personal journey also included visits to Taipei 101, one of the largest skyscrapers in the world, the Baoan Temple and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial. He also hiked several mountains overlooking Taipei, enjoying the beautiful views of Taiwan’s coastline and geological formations sculpted by erosion at Yehliu Geopark, and rode on the Maokong Gondola. 

Article by Cori Ilardi