The University of Cincinnati (UC) has a new friend in China.
Starting this fall, UC and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) launched a program that allows second-year English-track, mechanical engineering students at SJTU to matriculate at UC for the last three years of UC’s undergraduate mechanical engineering program.
Admitted students will complete the last three years of UC’s mechanical engineering undergraduate program, including one year of real world work experience, through UC’s acclaimed co-op program, and a capstone design clinic project in the fifth and last year of study.
Graduates will receive B.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from both UC and SJTU, making them highly marketable in both the US and China.
Earlier this year a group of UC professors visited SJTU, where Professor Teik C. Lim, head of UC’s Mechanical Engineering Department, gave a presentation to more than 100 SJTU first and second-year students. Other professors in this delegation included Frank Gerner, associate dean for Undergraduate and Administrative Affairs in the College of Engineering; and Professor Jay Lee, Ohio Eminent Scholar and L.W. Scott Alter Chair Professor in Mechanical Engineering.
During their visit Lee says they visited some companies, such as Caterpillar, National Instruments and GE.
“We found out that this program has value for [the students’] future,” Lee says. He adds that the companies they spoke with “are excited about this type of student.”
Professor Lee co-created the program with Professors Guang Meng, dean of SJTU’s mechanical engineering department, and Lifeng Xi, the department’s associate dean.
Already, five SJTU students are enrolled in the program, and companies in both the US and China have shown interest in having these students do their co-op programs with them.
These students are scheduled to graduate from UC after summer quarter 2011, after which they will return to SJTU to complete a final project for the SJTU portion of the program.
SJTU is considered one of the top engineering schools in China, and already has academic relationships with the University of Michigan, MIT, Georgia Tech and Purdue University.
“Our strategy is to develop strong ties with top universities, and to then create pathways for the best students into a broad range of UC disciplines,” says Vice Provost of UC International, Mitch Leventhal, PhD.
More information on UC International can be found here.
Writer: Jonathan DeHart
Source: University of Cincinnati
Enjoy this story?
Sign up for free solutions-based reporting in your inbox each week.